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THE  INTERNATIONAL  SCIENTIFIC  SERIES. 


MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 


AN  ESS  A  Y. 


BY 

TITO    VIGNOLI 


NEW  YOKE: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  S,   AND  5   BOND     STREET. 
1882. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  IDEAS  AND  SOUKCES  OF  MYTH  ...           ...           ...  1 

II.    ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION       ...            ...  48 

III.  HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION  ...          ...            ...  68 

IV.  STATEMENT  OF  THE  PROBLEM    ...            ...            ...  104 

V.    THE  ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  EXERCISE  OF  THE  INTELLECT 

IN  THE  PERCEPTION  OF  THINGS            ...            ...  116 

VI.     THE  INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  THE  FACULTY  OF  APPREHENSION  135 

VII.    THE  HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE  ...  155 

VIII.    OF  DREAMS,  ILLUSIONS,  NORMAL  AND  ABNORMAL  HALLU- 
CINATIONS, DELIRIUM,  AND  MADNESS — CONCLUSION   ...  241 


MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

THE   IDEAS   AND    SOURCES    OF   MYTH. 

MYTH,  as  it  is  understood  by  us,  and  as  it  will  be 
developed  and  explained  in  this  work,  cannot  be 
denned  in  summary  terms,  since  its  multiform  and 
comprehensive  nature  embraces  and  includes  all 
primitive  action,  as  well  as  much  which  is  con- 
secutive and  historical  in  the  intelligence  and  feelings 
of  man,  with  respect  to  the  immediate  and  the  reflex 
interpretation  of  the  world,  of  the  individual,  and  of 
the  society  in  which  our  common  life  is  passed. 

^We  hold  that  myth  is,  in  its  most  general  and 
comprehensive  nature,  the  spontaneous  and  imagina- 
tive form  in  which  the  human  intelligence  and  human 
emotions  conceive  and  represent  themselves  and 
things  in  general;  it  is  the  psychical  and  physical 
mode  in  which  man  projects  himself  into  all  those 


2  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

phenomena  which  he  is  able  to  apprehend  and 
perceive.*} 

We  do  not  propose  to  consider  in  this  treatise  the 
myths  peculiar  to  one  people,  nor  to  one  race ;  we  do 
not  seek  to  estimate  the  intrinsic  value  of  myths  at 
the  time  when  they  were  already  developed  among 
various  peoples,  and  constituted  into  an  Olympus, 
or  special  religion  ;  we  do  not  wish  to  determine  the 
special  and  historical  cause  of  their  manifestations 
in  the  life  of  any  one  people,  since  we  now  refrain 
from  entering  on  the  field  of  comparative  mythology. 
It  is  the  scope  and  object  of  our  modest  researches 
to  trace  the  strictly  primitive  origin  of  the  human 
myths  as  a  whole ;  to  reach  the  ultimate  fact,  and 
the  causes  of  this  fact,  whence  myth,  in  its  necessary 
and  universal  form,  is  evolved  and  has  its  origin. 

We  must  therefore  seek  to  discover  whether,  in 
addition  to  the  various  causes  assigned  for  myth  in 
earlier  ages,  and  still  more  in  modern  times  by  our  great 
philologists,  ethnologists,  and  philosophers  of  every 
school — causes  which  are  for  the  most  part  extrinsic 
—there  be  not  a  reason  more  deeply  seated  in  our 
nature,  which  is  first  manifested  as  a  necessary  and 
spontaneous  function  of  the  intelligence,  and  which  is 
therefore  intrinsic  and  inevitable. 

In  this  case  myth  will  appear  to  us,  not  as  an 
accident  in  the  life  of  primitive  peoples  varying  in 

*  Simrock  wrote :  "  Myth  is  the  earliest  form  in  which  the  mind 
of  heathen  peoples  recognized  the  universe  and  things  divine." 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.       3 

intensity  and  extent,  not  as  a  vague  conception  of 
things  due  to  the  erroneous  interpretation  of  words 
and  phrases,  nor  again  as  the  fanciful  creation  of 
ignorant  niinds  ,vbut  it  will  appear  to  be  a  special 
faculty  of  the  human  mind,  inspired  by  emotions 
which  accompany  and  animate  its  products*)  Since 
this  innate  faculty  of  myth  is  indigenous  and  common 
to  all  men,  it  will  not  only  be  the  portion  of  all 
peoples,  but  of  each  individual  in  every  age,  in  every 
race,  whatever  may  be  their  respective  conditions. 

!vMyth,  therefore,  will  not  be  resolved  by  us  into  a 
manifestation  of  an  obsolete  age,  or  of  peoples  still 
in  a  barbarous  and  savage  state,  nor  as  part  of  the 
cycle  through  which  nations  and  individuals  have, 
respectively  passed,  or  have  nearly  passed ;  but  it 
remains  to  this  day,  in  spite  of  the  prevailing  civili- 
zation which  has  greatly  increased  and  is  still  in- 
creasing, it  still  persists  as  a  mode  of  physical  and 
intellectual  force  in  the  organic  elements  which  con- 
stitute it. 

Nor,  let  it  be  observed,  do  I  say  that  such  a 
mythical  faculty  persists  as  such  only  among  the 
ignorant  masses  in  town  or  country,  in  the  form  of 
those  very  ancient  superstitions  which  have  been 
collected  with  immense  labour  by  learned  mythologists 
and  ethnologists ;  on  the  contrary)  I  maintain  that  the 
mythical  faculty  still  exists  in  all  men,  independently 
of  this  survival  of  old  superstitions,  to  whatever  people 
and  class  they  may  belong  ;)  and  it  will  continue 


4  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

to  exist  as  an  innate  function  of  the  intelligence, 
if  not  with  respect  to  the  substance,  which  may 
alter,  at  any  rate  in  the  mode  of  its  acts  and  pro- 
ceedings. ") 

I  fear  that  this  opinion  will  appear  at  first  sight 
to  be  paradoxical  and  chimerical,  since  it  is  well 
known  that  the  mythical  conception  of  the  world 
and  its  origin  is  gradually  disappearing  among  civi- 
lized nations,  and  it  is  supposed  to  be  altogether 
extinct  among  men  of  culture  and  intelligence.  Yet 
I  flatter  myself,  perhaps  too  rashly,  that  by  the  time 
he  reaches  the  end  of  this  work,  the  reader  will  be 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  my  assertion,  since  it  is 
proved  by  so  many  facts,  and  the  psychical  law  from 
which  it  results  is  so  clear. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that,  in  addition 
to  the  mythical  faculty  of  our  minds,  there  exists 
the  scientific  faculty,  the  other  factor  of  a  perfect  in- 
tellectual life ;  the  latter  is  most  powerful  in  certain 
races,  and  must  in  time  prevail  over  the  former, 
which  in  its  objective  form  precedes  it  ^yet  they  are 
subjectively  combined  in  practice  and  are  indissolubly 
united  through  life. 

Undoubtedly  neither  the  mythical  nor  the  scientific 
faculty  is  equal  and  identical  in  all  peoples,  any  more 
than  they  are  equal  and  identical  in  individuals jj  but 
they  subsist  together,  while  varying  in  intensity  and 
degree,  since  they  are  both  necessary  functions  of  the 
intelligence^ 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.       5 

Whether  we  content  ourselves  with  studying  the 
mental  and  social  conditions  in  the  lower  types  of 
modern  peoples,  or  go  back  to  the  earliest  times,  we 
find  men  everywhere  and  always  possessed  of  the 
power  of  speech,  and  holding  mythical  superstitions, 
it  may  be  of  the  rudest  and  most  elementary  kind ; 
so  also  do  we  find  men  possessed  of  rational  ideas, 
although  they  may  be  very  simple  and  empirical. 
They  have  some  knowledge  of  the  causes  of  things, 
of  periods  in  the  phenomena  of  nature,  which  they 
know  how  to  apply  to  the  habits  and  necessities  of 
their  social  and  individual  lives. 

No  one,  for  example,  would  deny  that  many 
mythical  superstitions,  and  fanciful  beliefs  in  in- 
visible powers,  existed  among  the  now  extinct 
Tasmanians,  and  are  now  found  among  the  An- 
daman islanders,  the  Fuegians,  the  Australians,  the 
Cingalese  Veddahs,  and  other  rude  and  uncultured 
savages.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  their  mode  of  life  find  that  savages 
are  not  absolutely  devoid  of  intellectual  activity  of 
an  empirical  kind/since  they  partly  understand  the 
natural  causes  of  some  phenomena,  and  are  able,  in 
a  rational,  not  an  arbitrary  manner,  to  ascribe  to 
laws  and  the  necessities  of  things  many  facts  relating 
to  the  individual  and  to  society/)  They  are,  there- 
fore, not  without  the  scientific  as  well  as  the  mythical 
faculty,  making  due  allowance  for  their  intellectual 
condition ;)  and  these  primitive  and  natural  instincts 


6  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

are  due  to  the  physical  and  intellectual  organism  of 
human  nature.^) 

fin  order  to  pursue  this  important  inquiry  into 
the  first  and  final  cause  of  the  origin  of  myth, 
it  is  evidently  not  enough  to  make  a  laborious 
and  varied  collection  of  myths,  and  of  the  primitive 
superstitions  of  all  peoples,  so  as  to  exhaust  the 
immense  field  of  modern  ethnography.  Nor  is  it 
enough  to  consider  the  various  normal  and  ab- 
normal conditions  of  psychical  phenomena,  nor  to 
undertake  the  comparative  study  of  languages,  to 
ascertain  how  far  their  speech  will  reveal  the 
primitive  beliefs  of-  various  races,  and  the  obscure 
metaphorical  sayings  which  gave  birth  to  many 
myths.  [It  is  also  necessary  to  subject  to  careful 
examination  the  simplest  elementary  acts  of  the  mind, 
in  their  physical  and  psychical  complexity,  in  order 
to  discover  in  their  spontaneous  action  the  trans- 
cendental fact  which  inevitably  involves  the  genesis 
of  the  same  myth,  the  primary  source  whence  it  is 
diffused  by  subsequent  reflex  efforts  in  various  times 
and  varying  forms.^) 

In  speaking  of  the  transcendental  fact,  it  must  not 
be  supposed  that  I  allude  to  certain  well-known  a 
priori  speculations,  which  are  opposed  to  my  temper 
of  mind  and  to  my  mode  of  teaching,  pt  only  use  the 
term  transcendental  because  this  is  actually  the  primi- 
tive condition  of  the  fact  in  its  inevitable  beginning, 
whatever  form  the  mythical  representation  may 


THE   IDEAS   AND   SOUKCES   OF  MYTH.  7 

subsequently  take.)  This  fact  is  not  peculiar  to  any 
individual,  people,  or  race,  but  it  is  manifested  as 
an  essential  organism  of  the  human  character,  which 
is  in  all  cases  universal,  permanent,  and  uniform. 

In  order  to  give  a  clear  explanation  of  my  esti- 
mate of  the  a  priori  idea,  which  also  takes  its  place 
as  the  factor  of  experimental  and  positive  teaching, 
I  must  observe  that  for  those  who  belong  to  the 
historical  and  evolutionary  school,  a  priori,  so  far  as 
respects  any  organism,  habit,  and  psychological  con- 
stitution in  the  whole  animal  kingdom,  in  which  man 
is  also  included,  signifies  whatever  in  them  is  fixed 
and  permanently  organized  ;  whatever  is  perpetuated 
by  the  indefinite  repetition  of  habits,  organs,  and 
functions,  by  means  of  the  heredity  of  ages.  The 
whole  history  of  organisms  abounds  with  positive  and 
repeated  proofs  of  this  fact,  which  no  one  can  doubt 
who  is  not  absolutely  ignorant  of  elementary  science. 
Every  day  adds  to  the  number  of  these  proofs,  de- 
monstrating one  of  those  truths  which  become  the 
common  property  of  nations. 

A  priori  is  therefore  reduced  by  us  to  the  modi- 
fication of  organs  in  their  physical  and  psychical 
constitution,  as  it  has  ultimately  taken  place  in  the 
organism  by  the  successive  evolutions  of  forms  which 
have  gradually  become  permanent,  and  are  perpetu- 
ated by  embryogenic  reproduction.  This  reproduc- 
tion is  in  its  turn  the  absolute  condition  of  psychical 
and  organic  facts,  which  are  thus  manifested  as  primi- 


8  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

tive  facts  in  the  new  life  of  the  individual.  By  this  law, 
the  psychical  facts,  whether  elementary  or  complex,  as 
they  occur  in  the  individual  up  to  the  point  of  their 
evolution,  have  the  necessary  conditions  of  possibility, 
and  may  therefore  be  termed  a  priori  with  respect  to 
the  laws  of  evolution,  and  to  the  hereditary  per- 
manence of  acts  performed  in  the  former  environment 
of  the  organism  at  the  time  when  they  appeared. 

This  conception  of  a  priori  is,  it  must  be  admitted, 
very  different  from  that  of  transcendental  philo- 
sophers, who  seek  to  prove  either  that  an  independent 
artificer  has  not  only  produced  the  various  organic 
forms  in  their  present  complexity,  and  has  specially 
provided  the  spiritual  subject  with  its  category  of 
thought,  independently  of  all  experience  ;  or  else 
they  assert  the  intrinsic  existence  of  such  forms  in 
the  spirit,  from  the  beginning  of  time. 

In  this  way,  as  we  have  already  said,  we  must  not 
only  collect  the  facts  which  abound  in  history  and 
ethnology  respecting  the  general  teaching  of  myths, 
but  we  must  also  observe  introspectively,  and  by 
pursuing  the  experimental  method,  the  primitive  and 
fundamental  psychical  facts,  so  as  to  discover  the 
a  priori  conditions  of  the  myth  itself.  We  must 
ascertain,  from  a  careful  psychological  examination, 
the  absolutely  primitive  origin  of  all  mythical  repre- 
sentations, and  how  these  are  in  their  turn  the  actual 
historical  result  of  the  same  conditions,  as  they  existed 
prior  to  their  manifestations. 


THE  IDEAS   AND   SOURCES   OF   MYTH.  9 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  in  this  primary  fact, 
and  in  these  a  priori  psychical  and  organic  conditions, 
we  shall  find  the  ulterior  cause  of  the  various  and 
manifold  forms,  or  of  the  successive  evolution  of 
myths.  This  would  be  a  grave  mistake,  equal  to  that 
of  transcendentalisms,  who  imagine  that  the  laws  which 
actually  exist,  and  the  order  of  cosmic  and  historic 
phenomena  may  be  determined  from  the  independent 
exercise  of  their  own  thoughts,  although  such  laws  and 
order  can  only  be  traced  and  discovered  by  experience 
and  the  observation  of  facts.  In  the  a  priori  conditions 
of  the  psychical  and  organic  nature,  and  in  the  element- 
ary acts  which  outwardly  result  from  them,  we  shall 
only  trace  the  origin  and  necessary  source  of  myth, 
not  the  variable  forms  of  its  successive  evolution. 

The  ulterior  form,  so  far  as  the  substance  of  the 
myth  and  its  various  modifications  are  concerned,  is 
in  great  part  the  reflex  work  of  man ;  its  aspect 
changes  in  accordance  with  the  attitude  and  force  of 
the  faculties  of  individuals,  peoples  and  races,  and  it 
depends  on  an  energy  to  which  the  a  priori  conditions, 
as  we  have  just  defined  them,  do  not  strictly  apply  so 
far  as  the  determinate  form  is  concerned. 

It  is  precisely  in  this  ulterior  work  of  the  evolution 
of  myth,  which  in  the  elementary  fact  of  its  primitive 
essence  had  its  origin  in  the  predisposition  of  mind  and 
body,  that  we  may  discern  the  interchangeable  germ 
and  origin  both  of  myth  and  science.  If,  therefore, 
the  rationale  of  science  cannot  be  found  in  the  general 


10  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

form  of  mythical  representations,  the  matter  which 
serves  to  exercise  the  mind ;  yet  the  mode  of  its 
exercise,  and  of  the  logical  and  psychical  faculty,  and 
the  spontaneous  method  pursued,  are  identical :  the 
two  mythical  and  scientific  faculties  are,  in  fact,  con- 
sidered in  themselves,  fused  into  one. 

As  far  as  the  origin  of  myth  is  concerned,  the 
mode  of  considering  its  evolution,  and  its  organic 
connection  with  science,  we  differ  from  other  mytho- 
logists  as  to  the  sources  to  which  they  trace  this 
immense  elaboration  of  the  human  intelligence.  We 
may  he  mistaken,  but  we  are  in  any  case  entering  on 
unexplored  ways,  and  if  we  go  astray,  the  boldness 
of  an  enterprise  which  we  undertake  with  diffidence 
pleads  for  indulgence. 

Omitting  to  notice  the  well-known  opinions  on  the 
origin  of  myth  which  were  current  in  classic  antiquity, 
in  the  Grseco-Latm  world,  or  in  India,*  we  restrict 
our  inquiry  to  modern  times  subsequent  to  Creuzer's 

*  Kumarila,  in  reply  to  the  opponents  who  inveighed  against  the 
immorality  of  his  gods,  wrote  that  the  fable  relates  how  Prajapati, 
the  lord  of  creation,  violated  his  own  daughter.  But  what  does  this 
signify?  Prajapati  is  one  name  for  the  sun,  so  called  because  he 
is  the  lord  of  light.  His  daughter  Ushas  is  the  dawn,  and  in 
declaring  that  he  fell  in  love  with  her,  it  is  only  meant  that  when 
the  sun  rises,  it  follows  the  dawn.  So  also,  when  it  is  said  that 
Indra  seduced  Ahalya,  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  God  committed  such 
a  crime,  but  Indra  is  the  sun,  and  Ahalya  is  the  night ;  and  so  we 
may  say  that  the  night  is  seduced  and  conquered  by  the  morning 
sun.  This,  and  other  instances  may  be  found  in  Max  Muller's 
History  of  Ancient  Sanscrit  Literature.  Other  instances  might  be 
given. 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.      11 

learned  and  extensive  labours.  In  a  more  scientific 
method,  and  divested  of  prejudice,  we  propose  to  trace 
the  sources  of  myth  in  general,  and  among  various 
peoples  in  particular. 

The  science  of  languages,  or  comparative  philology, 
is  the  chief  instrument  required  in  such  researches,  and 
much  light  has  been  acquired  in  our  days,  which  has 
led  to  surprising  results,  at  least  within  the  sphere 
of  the  special  races  to  which  it  has  been  applied. 
The  names  of  Kuhn,  Weber,  Sonne,  Benfey,  Grimm, 
Schwartz,  Hanusch,  Maury,  Breal,  Pictet,  1'Ascoli,  De 
Gubernatis,  and  many  others,  are  well  known  for 
their  marvellous  discoveries  in  this  new  and  arduous 
field.  They  have  not  only  fused  into  one  ancient 
and  primitive  image  the  various  myths  scattered  in 
different  forms  among  the  Aryan  races,  but  they  have 
revealed  the  original  conception,  as  it  existed  in  the 
earliest  meaning  of  words  before  their  dispersion. 
Hence  came  the  multiplicity  of  myths,  developed  in 
brilliant  anthropomorphic  groups  in  different  theo- 
logies, gradually  becoming  more  simple  as  time  went 
on,  then  uniting  in  the  vague  primitive  personification 
of  the  winds,  the  storms,  the  sun,  the  dawn;  in  short, 
of  astral  and  meteorological  phenomena. 

On  the  other  hand,  Max  Miiller,  whose  theory  of 
original  myths  is  peculiar  to  himself,  has  made  use 
of  this  philological  instrument  to  prove  that  the 
Aryan  myths  may  at  any  rate  be  referred  to  a  single 
source,  namely  to  metaphor,  or  to  the  double  meaning 


12  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  words,  due  to  the  poverty  of  primitive  languages. 
He  calls  this  double  meaning  the  infirmity  of  speech.  ^ 
I  do  not  deny  that  many  conclusions  to  which 
some  or  other  of  the  great  authorities  just  mentioned 
have  arrived  may  be  as  true  as  they  are  surprising. 
I  also  admit  that  this  may  be  a  certain  method  of 
distinguishing  the  various  mythical  representations  in 
their  early  beginnings  from  their  subsequent  and 
complex  forms.  But  in  all  the  facts  which  have  been 
ascertained,  or  which  may  hereafter  be  ascertained, 
from  the  comparative  study  of  the  languages  of 
different  races,  no  explanation  is  afforded  of  the  fact 
that  into  the  natural  and  primitive  phenomena  of 
myth,  or,  as  Miiller  holds,  into  its  various  metaphors, 
man  has  so  far  infused  his  own  life,  that  they  have, 
like  man  himself,  a  subjective  and  deliberate  con- 
sciousness and  force.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
problem  has  not  yet  been  solved  by  scholars  ;  they 
have  stopped  short  after  establishing  the  primary 
fact,  and  are  content  to  affirm  that  such  is  human 
nature,  which  projects  itself  on  external  things.* 

*  Tico  writes  :  "  The  human  mind  is  naturally  inclined  to  project 
itself  on  the  object  of  its  external  senses."  And  again,  "Common  speech 
ought  to  bear  witness  to  ancient  popular  customs,  celebrated  in  times 
when  the  language  was  formed."  So  again:  "Men  ignorant  of  the 
natural  causes  of  things  assign  to  them  their  own  nature.  .  .  ."  In 
another  place :  "  The  physical  science  of  ignorant  men  is  a  kind  of 
common  metaphysics,  by  which  they  assign  the  causes  of  things  which 
they  do  not  understand  to  the  will  of  the  gods."  Again :  "  Ignorant 
and  primitive  men  transform  all  nature  iuto  a  vast  living  body,  sentient 
of  passions  and  affections." 


THE  IDEAS  AND   SOUECES   OF   MYTH.  13 

This  explanation  establishes  a  true  and  universal 
fact,  but  it  is  not  the  explanation  of  the  fact  itself ; 
yet  it  is  not,  as  we  shall  see,  incapable  of  solution, 
and  it  appears  to  me  that  the  ultimate  source  whence 
myths  really  proceed  has  not  been  reached. 

Again,  if  such  an  opinion  and  such  a  method  can 
give  us  the  key  to  the  polytheistic  origin  of  the 
respective  Olympuses  of  classic  Greece  and  Eome,  it 
leaves  unexplained  the  numerous  and  manifold  super- 
stitions which  philology  itself  proves  to  have  existed 
prior  to  the  origin  of  cosmic  myths.  These  super- 
stitions can  by  no  means  be  referred  to  a  common 
source,  to  the  astral  and  meteorological  myths,  some 
of  which  were  prior,  while  others  were  subsequent  to 
these  superstitions. 

Taking,  therefore,  the  general  and  more  important 
opinions  which  are  now  current  respecting  the  origin 
of  myth,  it  may  be  said  that  in  addition  to  the  systems 
already  mentioned,  two  others  are  presented  to  us 
with  the  weight  of  authority  and  knowledge ;  these, 
while  they  do  not  renounce  the  appliances  and 
linguistic  analyses  of  the  former,  try  to  unite  all  the 
mythical  sources  of  mankind  in  general  into  a  single 
head,  whence  all  myths,  beliefs,  superstitions,  and  reli- 
gions have  their  origin.  While  France  and  Germany 
and  some  other  nations  have  achieved  distinction  in 
this  field,  England  has  been  especially  remarkable  for 
the  nature  of  her  attempts,  and  the  vastness  of  her 
achievements  in  every  direction.  We  pass  over  many 


14  MYTH   AND  SCIENCE. 

great  minds  which  were  first  in  the  field  in  order 
to  dwell  on  the  two  men  who,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
have  summed  up  the  knowledge  of  others,  and  have 
formulated  a  theory  in  great  measure  peculiar  to 
themselves. 

Tylor's  well  known  name  will  at  once  suggest 
v  itself,  and  that  of  Herbert  Spencer ;  the  former,  in 
his  great  work  on  the  "  Early  History  of  Mankind 
and  of  Civilization,"  and  other  writings,  the  latter,  in 
the  first  volume  of  his  "  Sociology,"  and  in  his  earlier 
works,  have  respectively  established  the  doctrine  of 
the  universal  origin  of  myths  on  the  basis  of  ethno- 
graphy, on  the  psychological  examination  of  the 
primary  facts  of  the  intelligence,  and  on  the  conception 
of  the  evolution  of  the  general  phenomena  of  nature.  . 
It  would,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  excel  the  great 
mind,  the  acute  genius,  and  the  universal  learning  of 
Herbert  Spencer,  who  has  been  termed  the  modern 
Aristotle  by  a  learned  writer  ;  and  this  is  high 
praise  when  we  remember  how  much  knowledge  is 
necessary  in  our  times,  and  in  the  present  con- 
ditions of  science,  before  any  one  can  be  deemed 
worthy  of  such  a  comparison.  But  with  due  respect 
to  so  great  a  man,  and  with  the  diffidence  of  one 
who  is  only  his  disciple,  I  venture  to  think  that 
Herbert  Spencer's  attempt  to  revive,  at  any  rate  in 
part,  Evemero's  theory  of  the  origin  of  myths  will 
not  be  successful,  and  it  may  prove  injurious  to 
science.  First,  because  all  myths  cannot  be  reduced 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.     15 

to  personal  or  historical  facts ;  and  next,  because  the 
primitive  value  of  many  of  them  is  so  clear  and  dis- 
tinct in  their  mode  of  expression  that  it  is  not  possible 
to  derive  them  from  any  source  but  the  direct  per- 
sonification of  natural  phenomena.  Nor  does  it 
appear  to  me  to  be  always  and  altogether  certain 
that  the  origin  of  myths,  also  caused  by  the  double 
personality  discerned  in  the  shadow  of  the  body  itself, 
in  the  images  reflected  by  liquid  substances,  in  echoes 
and  visions  of  the  night,  can  be  all  ascribed  to  the 
worship  of  the  dead. 

The  worship  of  the  dead  is  undoubtedly  universal. 
There  is  no  people,  ancient  or  modern,  civilized  or 
savage,  by  whom  it  has  not  been  practised ;  the  fact 
is  proved  by  history,  philology  and  ethnography. 
But  if  the  worship  of  the  dead  is  a  constant  form, 
manifested  everywhere,  it  flourishes  and  is  interwoven 
with  a  multitude  of  other  mythical  forms  and  super- 
stitious beliefs  which  cannot  in  any  way  be  reduced 
to  this  single  form  of  worship,  nor  be  derived  from  it. 
This  worship  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  abundant 
sources  of  myth,  and  Spencer,  with  his  profound 
knowledge  and  keen  discernment,  was  able  to  discuss 
the  hypothesis  as  it  deserves ;  whence  his  book, 
even  from  this  point  of  view,  is  a  masterpiece  of 
analysis,  like  all  those  which  issue  from  his  powerful 
mind. 

Yet  even  if  the  truth  of  this  doctrine  should  be  in 
great  measure  proved,  the  question  must  still  be  asked 
2 


16  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

how  it  happens  that  man  vivifies  and  personifies  his 
own  image  in  duplicate,  or  else  the  apparitions  of 
dreams  or  their  reflections,  and  the  echoes  of  nature, 
and  ultimately  the  spirits  of  the  dead. 

Tylor  developed  his  theory  more  distinctly  and  at 
greater  length,  and  he  brought  to  hear  upon  it  great 
genius,  extraordinary  knowledge,  and  a  sound  critical 
faculty,  so  that  his  work  must  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  human  thought. 
/  He  belongs  to  the  school  of  evolution,  and  his  book 
strongly  confirms  the  truths  of  that  theory ;  since 
from  the  primitive  germs  of  myth,  from  the  various 
and  most  simple  forms  of  fetishes  among  all  races, 
he  gradually  evolves  these  rude  images  into  more 
complex  and  anthropomorphic  forms,  until  he  attains 
the  limits  of  natural  and  positive  science.  He  admits 
that  there  are  in  mankind  various  normal  and  ab- 
normal sources  of  myth,  but  he  comes  to  the  ultimate 
conclusion  that  they  all  depend  on  man's  peculiar  and 
spontaneous  tendency  to  animate  all  things,  whence 
his  general  principle  has  taken  the  name  of  animism. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  say  much  in  praise  of  this  learned 
work,  since  it  is  known  to  all,  and  cannot  be  too  much 
studied  by  those  who  wish  for  instruction  on  sucli 
subjects. 

But  while  assenting  to  his  general  principle,  which 
remains  as  the  sole  ultimate  source  of  all  mythical 
representation,  I  repeat  the  usual  inquiry;  what 
causes  man  to  animate  all  the  objects  which  surround 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.     17 

him,  and  what  is  the  cause  of  this  established  and 
universal  fact  ?  The  marvellous  ethnographic  learn- 
ing of  the  author,  and  his  profound  analysis,  do  not 
answer  this  question,  and  the  problem  still  remains 
unsolved. 

It  is  evident  from  what  we  have  said,  that  the 
theory  of  the  origin  of  myth  has  of  late  made  real  and 
important  progress  in  different  directions  ;  it  has  been 
constituted  by  fitting  methods,  and  with  dispassionate 
research,  laying  aside  fanciful  hypotheses  and  systems 
more  or  less  prompted  by  a  desire  to  support  or  con- 
fute principles  which  have  no  connection  with  science. 
We  have  now  in  great  measure  arrived  at  the  funda- 
mental facts  whence  myth  is  derived,  although,  if  I 
do  not  deceive  myself,  the  ultimate  fact,  and  the 
cause  of  this  fact,  have  not  yet  been  ascertained ; 
namely,  for  what  reason  man  personifies  all  pheno- 
mena,  first  vaguely  projecting  himself  into  them, 
and  then  exercising  a  distinct  purpose  of  anthropo- 
morphism, until  in  this  way  he  has  gradually  modified 
the  world  according  to  his  own  image. 

If  we  are  able  to  solve  this  difficult  problem,  a 
fact  most  important  to  science  and  to  the  advance- 
ment of  these  special  studies  must  result  from  it :  the 
assimilation  and  concentration  of  all  the  sources  of 
myth  into  a  single  act,  whether  normal  or  abnormal 
to  humanity.  To  say  that  animism  is  the  general 
principle  of  myth  does  not  reduce  the  different  sources 
whence  it  proceeds  to  a  single  psychical  and  organic 


18  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

act,  since  they  remain  distinct  and  separate  in  their 
respective  orbits.  To  attain  our  object,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  direct  personification  of  natural  phenomena, 
as  well  as  the  indirect  personification  of  metaphor; 
the  infusion  of  life  into  a  man's  own  shadow,  into 
reflex  images  and  dreams ;  the  belief  in  the  reality  of 
normal  illusions,  as  well  as  of  the  abnormal  halluci- 
nations of  delirium,  of  madness,  and  of  all  forms  of 
nervous  affections ;  all  these  things  must  be  resolved 
into  a  single  generating  act  which  explains  and  in- 
cludes them.  It  must  be  shown  how  and  why  there 
is  found  in  man  the  possibility  of  modifying  all  these 
mythical  forms  into  an  image  supposed  to  be  external 
to  himself,  living  and  personal.  For  if  we  are  enabled 
to  reply  scientifically  to  such  inquiries,  we  shall  not 
only  have  concentrated  in  a  single  fact  all  the  most 
diverse  normal  and  abnormal  forms  of  myth  peculiar 
to  man,  but  we  shall  also  have  given  an  ulterior  and 
analytic  explanation  of  this  fact. 

I  certainly  do  not  presume  to  declare  myself  com- 
petent to  effect  so  much,  and  I  am  more  conscious 
than  my  critics  how  far  I  fall  short  of  my  high  aim ; 
but  the  modest  attempt,  made  with  the  resolution  to 
accept  all  criticism  offered  with  courtesy  and  good 
faith,  does  not  imply  culpable  presumption  nor  ex- 
cessive vanity. 

I  regret  to  say  that  it  is  not  on  this  point  only 
that  my  theory  of  myth  differs  from  that  of  others  ; 
I  shall  not  be  satisfied  if  I  only  succeed  in  discover- 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOUKCES  OF  MYTH.  19 

ing  in  man  the  primitive  act  which  issues  the 
general  animism  of  things,  which  becomes  the  sub- 
stance of  the  ulterior  myths  in  their  intellectual  and 
historical  evolution.  It  is  evident,  at  least  to  those 
who  do  not  cling  obstinately  to  old  traditions,  that 
man  is  evolved  from  the  animal  kingdom.  The  com- 
parative anatomy,  physiology,  and  psychology  of  man 
and  other  animals  distinctly  show  their  intimate  con- 
nection in  conformation,  tissues,  organs,  and  functions, 
and  above  all,  in  consciousness  and  intelligence.  This 
truth,  deduced  from  simple  observation  and  experi- 
ment, must  lead  to  the  conviction  that  all  issued  from 
the  same  germ,  and  had  the  same  genesis. 

For  those  who  do  not  cherish  pedantic  and  sec- 
tarian prejudices,  this  hypothesis  is  changed  into  as- 
surance by  modern  discoveries;  it  is  shown  in  the 
transformations  and  transitions  of  paleontological 
forms ;  in  the  embryogenic  evolution  of  so  many 
animals,  man  included,  which,  according  to  their 
various  species,  reveals  the  lower  types  whence  they 
issued ;  in  the  successive  forms  taken  by  the  foetus ; 
in  the  powerful  and  indisputable  laws  of  selection; 
in  the  modifications  by  adaptation  of  the  different 
organisms,  and  in  the  effects  of  isolation.  This  is  the 
only  rational  explanation,  confirmed  as  it  is  by  fresh 
facts  every  day,  of  the  multiplicity  and  variety  of 
organic  forms  in  the  lapse  of  time ;  unless,  indeed,  we 
ascribe  such  variety  to  a  miracle,  even  more  difficult 
to  accept  than  the  difficulties  of  the  opposite  theory. 


20  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

I  admit  that  evidence  for  the  complete  demon- 
stration of  this   theory  is   sometimes  wanting ;    the 

\  gaps  between  the  fossil  fauna  and  flora  and  those  of 
modern  times  are  neither  few  nor  unimportant ;  but 
on  the  other  hand,  such  proofs  are  accumulating,  and 
the  gaps  are  filled  up  every  day,  so  that  we  may 
almost  assert  that  in  soine  way  or  other,  by  means 
somewhat  different  from  those  on  which  we  now  rely, 

0  the  great  rational  principle  of  evolution  will  be  suc- 
cessfully and  permanently  established. 

It  is  more  than  twenty  years  since,  in  ways  and 
by  study  peculiar  to  ourselves,  we  first  devoted  our- 
selves to  this  theory,  and  while  we  gave  a  conscientious 
consideration  to  opposite  theories,  so  as  to  estimate 
with  sincerity  their  importance  and  value,  we  could 
not  relinquish  our  conviction  that  every  advance  in 
physical,  biological,  and  social  science  served  to  con- 
firm the  theory  of  evolution. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  I  make  any  dogmatic 
assertion,  which  might  possibly  be  erroneous,  when  I 
say  that  the  evidence  of  facts  does  not  contradict  the 
assumptions  of  modern  science.  Sincere  convictions 
should  offend  no  one,  nor  do  they  indicate  an 
a  priori  conflict  with  other  beliefs.  Every  one  is 
justified  in  thinking  his  own  thoughts  when  he  speaks 
with  moderation  and  supports  his  peculiar  opinions 
with  a  certain  amount  of  learning. 

It  is  not  denied,  even  by  those  who  oppose  modern 
theories  respecting  the  genesis  of  organisms,  that 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.     21 

there  are,  excluding  some  psychical  elements,  many 
and  important  points  of  resemblance  between  man 
and  animals  in  the  exercise  of  their  consciousness, 
intelligence,  and  emotions,  if  indeed  they  are  not 
identically  the  same.  The  comparative  psychology 
of  man  and  animals  plainly  shows  that  the  per- 
ceptions, both  in  their  respective  organs  and  in  their 
mode  of  action,  act  in  the  same  way,  especially 
in  the  higher  animals;  and  the  origin,  movements, 
and  associations  of  the  imagination  and  the  emotions 
are  likewise  identical.  Nor  will  it  be  disputed  that 
we  find  in  animals  implicit  memory,  judgment,  and 
reasoning,  the  inductions  and  deductions  from  one 
special  fact  to  another,  the  passions,  the  physiological 
language  of  gestures,  expressive  of  internal  emotions, 
and  even,  in  the  case  of  gregarious  animals,  the  com- 
bined action  to  effect  certain  purposes ;  so  that,  as  far 
as  their  higher  orders  are  concerned,  animals  may 
be  regarded  as  a  simple  and  undeveloped  form  of 
man,  while  man,  by  his  later  psychical  and  organic 
evolution,  has  become  a  developed  and  complex 
animal.* 

|  In  my  book  on  the  fundamental  law  of  intelligence   \/ 
in  the  animal  kingdom,  I  attempted  to  show  this  great 
truth,  and  to  formulate  a  principle  common  to  all 
animals  in  the  exercise  of  their  psychical  emotions, 

*  See,  among  other  authorities  for  the  most  important  phenomena 
of  animals  in  their  natural  associations,  the  profoundly  learned  work 
by  the  well-known  A.  Espinas :  Des  societe's  animates :  tftude  de 
Psychologic  comparee.  Paris,  2nd  edit.,  1879. 


22  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

by  setting  forth  the  essential  elements  as  they  are 
generally  displayed.  I  think  I  was  not  far  from  the 
truth  in  establishing  a  law  which  seems  indubitable ; 
although,  while  some  men  whose  opinion  is  worthy 
of  esteem  have  accepted  it,  other  very  competent 
judges  have  objected  to  some  parts  of  my  theory, 
but  without  convincing  me  of  error.  I  repeat  my 

y  conclusions  here,  since  they  are  necessary  to  the 
theory  of  the  genesis  of  myth,  which  I  propose  to 
explain  in  this  work.  I  hold  the  complete  identity 
between  man  and  animals  to  be  established  by  the 
adequate  consideration  of  the  faculties,  the  psychical 
elements  of  consciousness  and  intelligence,  and  the 
mode  of  their  spontaneous  exercise  ;  and  I  believe  the 
superiority  of  man  to  consist  not  so  much  in  new 
faculties  as  in  the  reflex  effect  upon  themselves  of 
those  he  possesses  in  common  with  the  animals.,  The 
old  adage  confirms  this  theory  i^Homo  duplex.  \ 

No  one  now  doubts  that  animals  feel,  hear,  re- 
member, and  the  like,  while  man  is  able  to  exercise 
his  will,  to  feel,  to  remember,  deliberately  to  con- 
sider all  his  actions  and  functions,  because  he  not 
only  possesses  the  direct  and  spontaneous  intuition 
with  respect  to  himself  and  things  in  general  which  he 
has  in  common  with  animals,  but  he  has  an  intuitive 

VI  knowledge  of  that  intuition  itself,  and  in  this  way  he 
multiplies  within  himself  the  exercise  of  his  whole 
psychical  life.  We  find  the  ultimate  cause  of  this 
return  upon  himself,  and  his  intuition  of  things,  in 


THE   IDEAS  AND   SOURCES   OF   MYTH.  23 

his  deliberate  will,  which  does  not  only  immediately 
command  his  body  and  his  manifold  relative  functions, 
but  also  the  complex  range  of  his  psychical  acts. 
This  fact,  which  as  I  believe  has  not  been  observed 
before,  is  of  great  importance.  It  is  manifest  that 
the  difference  between  man  and  other  animals  does 
not  consist  in  the  diversity  or  discrepancy  of  the 
elements  of  the  intelligence,  but  in  its  reflex  action  I/ 
on  itself ;  an  action  which  certainly  has  its  conditions 
fixed  by  the  organic  and  physiological  composition 
of  the  brain. 

If  it  should  be  said  that  the  traditional  opinion  of 
science,  as  well  as  the  general  sentence  of  mankind, 
have  always  regarded  reflection  as  the  basis  of  the 
difference  between  animals  and  man,  so  that  there 
is  no  novelty  in  our  principle,  the  assertion  is 
erroneous.  Eeflection,  as  an  inward  psychical  fact, 
has  certainly  been  observed  by  psychologists  and 
philosophers  in  all  civilized  times,  and  instinctively 
by  every  one ;  nor  could  it  be  otherwise,  since 
reflection  is  one  of  the  facts  most  evident  to  human 
consciousness.  But  although  the  fact,  or  the  in- 
trinsic and  characteristic  action  of  human  thought 
has  been  observed,  and  has  often  been  discussed  and 
analyzed  in  some  of  its  elements,  yet  its  genesis  has  * 
not  been  declared,  nor  has  its  ultimate  cause  been 
discovered.  We  propose  to  discover  this  ultimate 
cause,  and  we  refer  it  to  the  exercise  of  the  will  over 
all  the  elements  and  acts  which  constitute  human 


24  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

intelligence ;  an  intelligence  only  differing  from  that 
of  animals  by  this  inward  and  deliberate  fact, 
which  enables  man  to  consider  and  examine  all 
his  acts,  thus  logically  doubling  their  range.  This 
intelligence  has  in  animals  a  simple  and  direct  in- 
fluence on  their  bodies  and  on  the  external  world, 
in  proportion  to  their  diverse  forms  and  inherited 
instincts ;  while  in  man,  owing  to  his  commanding 
attitude,  it  falls  back  upon  itself,  and  gives  rise  to 
the  inquiring  and  reflective  habit  of  science. 

We  do  not,  therefore,  divide  man  from  other 
animals,  but  rather  assert,  that  many  proofs  and 
subtle  analyses  show  the  identity  of  their  intelli- 
gence in  its  fundamental  elements,  while  the  dif- 
ference is  only  the  result  of  a  reaction  of  the  same 
intelligence  on  itself.  Such  a  theory  does  not  in  any 
way  interrupt  the  natural  evolution  and  genesis  of 
the  animal  kingdom,  while  the  distinctive  peculiarity 
of  man  is  shown  in  an  act  which,  as  I  believe,  clearly 
explains  the  new  faculty  of  reason  acquired  by  him. 

I  must  admit  that  in  speaking  of  the  psychical 
faculty  as  a  force  which  possesses  laws  peculiar  to 
itself,  it  has  appeared  to  a  learned  and  competent 
judge  that  I  have  conceded  a  real  existence  to  this 
faculty,  independently  of  the  physiological  conditions 
through  which  it  manifests  itself,  which  might  be 
called  a  mythical  personality  in  the  constitution  of 
the  world.  If  I  had  really  made  such  an  assertion,  it 
would  be  an  error  which  I  am  perhaps  more  ready 


THE   IDEAS  AND   SOUKCES   OF   MYTH.  25 

than  others  to  repudiate,  as  it  will  appear  in  the 
present  work.  I  am  far  from  blaming  the  courteous 
critics  who  allege  such  objections  to  my  theory,  and 
indeed  I  am  honoured  by  their  notice.  I  must  blame 
myself  for  not  having,  in  my  desire  to  be  brief, 
sufficiently  denned  my  conception. 

I  hold  the  psychical  manifestation  to  be  not  only  v/ 
conditioned  by  the  organism,  to  speak  scientifically, 
and  to  be  rendered  physiologically  possible  by  these 
conditions,  but  I  consider  it  to  be  of  the  same  nature 
as  the  other  so-called  forces  of  the  universe ;  such, 
for  example,  as  the  manifestations  of  light,  of  elec-  y 
tricity,  of  magnetism,  and  the  like.  When  physicists 
speak  of  these  forces — if  the  necessities  of  language 
and  the  brevity  of  the  explanation  constrain  us  to 
adopt  the  term  forces,  as  though  they  were  real 
substances — they  certainly  do  not  believe,  nor  wish 
others  to  believe,  that  they  are  really  such.  It  is  well 
known  that  such  expressions  are  used  to  signify  the 
appearance  under  certain  circumstances  of  some 
special  phenomena  which  group  themselves  by  their 
mode  and  power  of  manifestation  into  one  generic 
conception  as  a  summary  of  the  whole.  They  always 
take  place,  relatively  to  these  circumstances,  in  the 
same  mode  and  with  the  same  power,  so  that  they 
may  at  once  be  experimentally  distinguished  from 
others  which  have  been  grouped  together  in  like 
manner. 

Such  manifestations  do  not  imply  a  real  cosmic 


26  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

entity  of  these  forces,  as  if  they  were  independent 
of  the  matter  whence  they  issue ;  they  are  simply 
determinate  and  determinable  modes  of  motions,  of 
actions,  and  reactions  in  the  elements  of  the  world. 
For  if  magnetism  appears  to  reveal  itself  in  deter- 
minate elements,  its  modes  of  manifestation  are 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  its  efficacy  with  respect  to 
other  forces  is  also  peculiar;  yet  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  it  possesses  a  substantial  entity,  or,  as 
-  it  were,  displays  personal  activity  among  phenomena  ; 
it  rather  indicates  that  the  elements  of  the  world 
will,  tinder  given  circumstances,  act  reciprocally  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  perceive  phenomena  which 
group  themselves  together  and  which  we  call  mag- 
netic or  magnetism.  And  this  explanation  applies 
to  other  cases. 

I  therefore,  speaking  of  psychical  force  in  general, 
used  the  same  terms ;  I  certainly  did  not  wish  to 
constitute  it  into  a  personal  and  material  entity  of 
the  universe,  but  I  intended  to  assert  that  among  the 
manifestations  of  the  various  forces  of  the  world, 
i  denned  as  above,  there  is  also  this  psychical  force, 
c  characterized  by  phenomena  and  laws  peculiar  to 
itself,  and  which,  as  I  have  shown,  is  when  exercised 
one  of  the  greatest  factors  of  the  world.  I  repeat 
that  if  this  force  varies  with  the  greater  or  less  per- 
fection of  the  organisms  in  which  it  is  manifested, 
yet  it  possesses  a  law  and  fundamental  elements  by 
which  it  is  so  constituted  that  the  same  results  will 


THE  IDEAS  AND   SOURCES  OF   MYTH.  27 

ensue  in  the  simplest  as  in  the  most  complex  form. 
This  is  the  case  with  all  the  other  forces  of  nature ; 
they  may  be  modified  by  existing  circumstances, 
and  yet  they  have  laws  and  definite  elements  to 
distinguish  them  from  all  others.  These  forces, 
however,  while  they  are  distinct  in  their  peculiar 
manifestations,  and  take  effect  through  special  quali- 
ties, quantities,  and  rhythmic  movements,  are  all 
fused  together  in  the  infinite  and  eternal  unity  which 
constitutes  the  life  of  the  universe.  Neither  here 
nor  in  my  former  work  is  there  any  question  of  that 
most  difficult  problem,  the  individual  personality  of 
man.* 

Since  there  is  between  man  and  animals  a 
relationship  and  a  psychical  identity,  as  well  as  a 
geketic  continuity  of  evolution,  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  that  there  is  also  in  some  degree  a  like  con- 
tinuity in  the  products  and  acts  of  the  consciousness,  j 
the  emotions,  and  the  intelligence.  This  is  asserted  or 
admitted  even  by  those  who  do  not  like  to  hear  of  the 
genetic  continuity  of  evolution,  nor  is  there  now  any 
school  of  thought  which  impugns  such  a  truth.  If  this 
be  true,  as  it  undoubtedly  is,  and  since  we  are  treating 
of  the  genesis  of  myth  in  its  earliest  beginning,  we 

*  I  stated  in  my  former  essay  on  the  fundamental  law  of  the  in- 
telligence in  the  animal  kingdom  that  philosophy  was  only  the 
research  into  the  psychical  manifestations  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and 
into  those  peculiar  to  man,  in  connection  with  the  respective  organisms 
in  which  they  act,  and  with  the  estimate  of  their  power  as  cosmic 
factors  in  the  general  harmony  of  the  forces  of  the  world. 


28  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

will  endeavour,  with  daring  prompted  by  the  theory 
of  evolution,  to  discover  if  the  first  germ  of  these 
representations  may  not  have  already  existed  in 
the  animal  kingdom  before  it  was  evolved  in  man 
in  the  fetishtic  and  anthropomorphic  form.  This 
is  an  arduous  but  necessary  inquiry,  to  which  I 
am  impelled  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  as  it  is 
properly  understood,  as  well  as  by  the  universal  logic 
of  nature. 

If  I  were  to  consider  myth  as  it  has  ultimately 
been  developed  in  man,  it  would  be  a  strange  and 
absurd  attempt  to  trace  out  any  points  of  resemblance 
with  animals,  who  are  altogether  devoid  of  the  logical 
faculty  which  leads  to  such  development.  But  if,  on 
the  contrary,  we  endeavour  to  trace  the  earliest, 
spontaneous,  and  direct  elements  of  myth  as  a 
product  of  animal  emotions  and  implicit  intelligence, 
such  research  becomes  not  only  legitimate  but  neces- 
sary; since  the  instrument  is  the  same,  the  effects 
ought  also  to  be  the  same. 

We  have  already  said  that  the  fact  has  been 
observed  and  generally  admitted  that  the  primary 
origin  of  myth  in  its  essential  elements  consists  in 
the  personification  or  animation  of  all  extrinsic 
phenomena,  as  well  as  of  the  dreams,  illusions,  and 
hallucinations  which  are  intrinsic.  It  is  agreed  that 
this  animation  is  not  the  reflex  and  deliberate  act 
of  man,  but  that  it  is  the  spontaneous  and  immediate 
act  of  the  human  intelligence  in  its  elementary 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.      29 

consciousness  and  emotions.  It  must  therefore  be 
evident  that  this  vague  and  continual  animation  of 
things  ought  to  be  found  also  in  animals,  especially 
in  those  of  the  higher  types,  in  whom  consciousness, 
the  emotions,  and  the  intelligence  are  implicitly  iden- 
tical with  those  of  man.  Consequently,  that  which 
is  at  first  sight  absurd  becomes  obvious  and  natural, 
and  the  fact  is  only  strange  and  inexplicable  to  those 
who  have  not  carefully  considered  it. 

We  must,  however,  declare  that  this  primary  fact 
is  not  irreducible,  and  that  science  ought  not  to  be 
content  to  stop  there,  but  should  endeavour  to  explain 
and  resolve  it  into  its  elements,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
say  we  have  reached  the  point  at  which  the  genesis 
of  myth  really  begins.  This  aim  can  only  be  attained 
by  the  decomposition  by  analysis  of  the  primitive  fact. 
Since  intelligence  in  its  essential  elements,  and  in 
its  innate  and  implicit  exercise,  appears  to  be  the 
same  in  man  and  in  animals,  it  is  necessary  to  reduce 
the  analysis  of  animal  nature  to  a  primary  psychical 
fact,  in  order  to  see  whether  by  this  fact,  which  is 
identical  also  in  man,  the  generating  element  of  myth 
is  really  revealed. 

I  propose  to  show  that  this  research  will  reveal 
truths  hitherto  unattained,  and  explain  the  general 
law,  not  merely  of  the  extrinsic  process  of  science  and 
of  myth,  but  also  of  civilization. 

Starting  from  this  wide  basis,  we  must  trace,  step 
by  step,  the  dawn,  development,  and  gradual  dis- 


30  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

appearance  of  myth.  Since  it  is  our  business  to 
consider  science  as  well  as  myth,  and  their  respec- 
tive relations  in  the  evolution  common  to  both,  we 
must,  as  briefly  as  possible  in  the  present  work,  pause 
to  consider  these  two  factors  of  the  human  mind, 
observing  the  beginnings,  conditions,  and  modes  in 
/  which  the  one  arose  and  gradually  disappeared,  while 
the  other  advanced  and  triumphed.  We  must  not 
only  regard  the  progress  and  transformation  of 
religions,  but  also  of  science,  as  it  is  revealed  in 
the  philosophic  systems  of  every  age,  in  the  partial 
or  complete  discoveries  of  genius,  and  in  the  great 
and  stupendous  achievements  of  modern  experimental 
science.  It  would  require  a  long  treatise  to  fill  so 
wide  a  field,  which  we  must  restrict  to  the  limits  of 
a  few  pages.  Since  our  readers  are  now  generally 
acquainted  with  the  course  pursued  by  human  thought, 
and  with  the  progress  of  peoples,  but  few  landmarks  or 
formulas  are  necessary  to  enable  them  to  clear  away 
obscurity  and  estimate  facts  at  their  just  value,  so  as 
to  understand  what  civilization  and  science  have  to 
do  with  the  evolution  of  myth,  and  of  science  itself. 

A  great  corollary  also  ensues  from  studies  under- 
taken with  the  aid  of  sociology,  that  is,  the  genesis, 
form,  and  gradual  evolution  of  human  societies. 
These  vary  in  character,  in  attitude,  in  power,  form, 
and  duration,  with  the  different  characters  of  races, 
and  thus  fulfil  in  various  ways  the  cycle  of  myth 
and  science  of  which  they  are  capable.  It  would 


THE  IDEAS  AND   SOURCES  OF  MYTH.  31 

indeed  be  difficult  to  attain  to  a  clear  and  adequate 
conception  of  the  universal  evolution  of  myth  and 
science,  but  for  the  existence  of  a  privileged  race 
distinguished  for  its  psychical  and  organic  power, 
which  from  its  beginning  until  now,  although  subject 
to  many  partial  eclipses,  has  on  the  whole  maintained 
its  position  in  the  world  so  as  to  present  to  us  the 
long  historical  drama  of  its  evolutions.  Other  races, 
peoples,  or  tribes  have  disappeared  in  the  struggle 
for  existence,  or  have  remained  essentially  incapable 
of  further  progress  even  in  a  relatively  inferior  de- 
gree, so  as  to  afford  no  aid  in  following  the  successive 
development  of  myth  and  science;  while  the  Aryan  X 
family,  a  race  to  which  I  believe  that  the  Semitic  .  • 
originally  belonged,*  furnishes  the  unbroken  sequence 
of  events  and  the  stages  of  such  complex  evolution. 
Nor  certainly  is  there  any  signs  of  the  disappearance 
of  this  race,  since  every  day  its  intellectual  and 
territorial  achievements,  added  to  the  instruments  of 
a  powerful  material  civilization,  invigorate  its  strength 
and  presage  its  indefinite  duration  in  forms  we  are 
not  able  to  foresee,  unless  indeed  fatal  astral  or 
telluric  catastrophes  should  hinder  its  progress  or 
bring  it  to  an  end. 

If  we  compare  this  race  with  itself  at  different 
epochs,  and  in  the  many  different  peoples  into  which 

*  See,  with  respect  to  the  primitive   unity  of  the  Aryan  and 
Semitic  races,  the  works  of  the  great  philologist,  T.  G-.  Ascoli,  and  | 
others. 


32  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

it  was  severed,  and  if  at  the  same  time  we  confront 
it  with  the  types  of  other  peoples  at  various  stages, 
from  the  rudest  to  the  most  civilized,  it  becomes 
possible  to  form  a  clear  conception  of  the  genesis 
and  successive  evolution  of  myth  and  science  of  which 
the  human  race  is  capable,  and  in  this  way  we  may 
understand  the  general  law  which  governs  such  evolu- 
tions. This  study  also  teaches  us  that  humanity, 
whether  we  agree  with  monogenists  or  poligenists,  is 
physically  and  psychically  in  all  respects  the  same 
in  its  essential  elements;  in  all  peoples  without 
distinction,  as  ethnography  teaches  us,  the  origin  and 
genesis  of  myth,  the  implicit  exercise  of  reason  and 
its  development,  are,  at  all  events  up  to  a  given  point, 
absolutely  identical.  All  start  from  the  same  mani- 
festations and  mythical  creations,  and  these  are 
afterwards  developed  according  to  the  logical  or 
scientific  canons  of  thought,  which  are  applied  to 
their  classification.  Both  among  fetish-worshippers 
and  polytheists  there  was  a  tendency  towards  mono- 
theism, although  sometimes  it  could  only  be  discerned 
in  a  vague  and  confused  manner. 

If  myth  is,  as  I  have  said,  to  be  considered  from 
another  point  of  view,  as  the  spontaneous  effect  of  the 
intelligence,  and  a  necessary  function,  relatively  to 
the  primary  act  from  which  it  begins,  it  might  appear 
that  myth  would  never  cease  to  be,  and  that  humanity, 
even  as  it  is  represented  by  the  elect  and  enduring 
race,  must  always  remain  in  this  original  illusion ;  so 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOUKCES  OF  MYTH.      33 

that  every  man  would  have  to  begin  again  for  himself 
in  his  own  peculiar  cycle  of  myth.  But  history  shows 
that  this  is  not  the  case,  and  that  the  mythic  faculty 
gradually  wanes  and  becomes  weaker,  even  if  it  does 
not  altogether  cease  to  exist,  a  result  which  would  not 
occur  if  myth  were  a  necessary  function  of  the 
intelligence. 

I  shall  presently  reply  to  such  an  objection;  in 
the  meanwhile,  regarding  the  question  superficially, 
I  need  only  say  that  if  the  mythic  faculty  diminishes 
in  one  direction,  and  with  respect  to  some  forms 
and  their  corresponding  substance,  it  has  certainly 
not  ceased  to  appear  in  another,  exerting  itself,  as 
we  shall  see,  in  other  forms  and  other  substance. 
The  common  people,  both  urban  and  rural,  do  for 
the  most  part  adhere  to  primitive  and  very  ancient 
superstitions,  as  every  one  may  know  from  his  own 
experience,  as  well  as  from  the  writings  of  well  known 
authors  of  nearly  all  the  civilized  nations  of  Europe. 
In  fact,  every  man  in  the  early  period  of  his  life 
constructs  a  heaven  for  himself,  as  those  who  study 
the  ways  of  children  are  aware,  and  this  has  given 
rise  to  a  new  science  of  infantine  psychology,  set  forth 
in  the  writings  of  Taine,  Darwin,  Perez,  and  others. 

We  also  propose  to  show  that  the  scientific  faculty, 
which  gathers  strength  and  is  developed  from  the 
mythical  faculty,  is  in  the  first  instance  identical  and 
confounded  with  it,  but  that  science  corrects  and 
controls  the  primitive  function,  just  as  reason  corrects 


34  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  explains  the  errors  and  illusions  of  the  senses ;  so 
that  the  truly  rational  man  issues,  like  the  foetus 
from  its  embryonic  covering,  out  of  its  primitive 
mythical  covering  into  the  light  of  truth. 

Every  one  must  perceive  that  the  study  of  the 
origin  of  myths  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
clear  and  positive  knowledge  of  mankind.  In  modern 
times  biological  science,  such  as  ethnography  and 
anthropology,  have  not  only  thrown  much  light  on 
the  genesis  of  organic  bodies,  of  animals  and  of  man, 
but  they  have  afforded  very  important  aid  to  psycho- 
logical research,  on  account  of  the  close  connection 
between  psychology  and  the  general  physical  laws 
of  the  world.  The  mythical  faculty  in  man,  and  its 
results,  have  received  much  light  from  these  sciences, 
since  the  modifications  induced  in  individuals  and  in 
peoples  by  many  natural  causes,  organic  or  climato- 
logical,  are  based  upon  their  physiological  conditions. 
In  the  first  chapters  of  Herbert  Spencer's  book  on 
Sociology,  there  is  a  masterly  investigation  into 
the  changes  produced  by  climate,  with  its  accidents 
and  organic  products,  on  the  peculiar  temperament 
of  different  peoples  and  races,  and  we  must  refer  our 
readers  to  his  admirable  summary. 

We  avail  ourselves  of  the  aid  afforded  by  all  these 
branches  of  science  in  order  to  comprehend  the  true 
nature  of  man,  and  the  place  which  he  really  occupies 
in  the  animal  creation.  Man  should  be  estimated 
as  all  other  products  and  phenomena  of  nature  are 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOURCES  OF  MYTH.      35 

estimated,  according  to  his  absolute  value,  divested, 
as  in  the  ease  of  all  other  physical  and  organic 
sciences,  of  preconceived  ideas  or  prejudices  in  favour 
of  the  supernatural.  He  should  be  studied  as  in 
physics  we  study  bodies  and  the  laws  which  govern 
them,  or  as  the  laws  of  their  motions  and  com- 
binations are  studied  in  chemistry,  allowance  always 
being  made  for  their  reciprocal  relations,  and  for 
their  appearance  as  a  whole.  For  if  there  be  in  the 
universe  a  distinction  of  modes,  there  is  no  absolute 
separation  of  laws  and  phenomena. 

The  various  branches  of  science  are  only  sub- 
jective necessities,  consequent  on  the  successive  and 
gradual  order  of  our  comprehension  of  things ;  they 
are  classifications  of  method,  with  no  special  reference 
to  the  undivided  personality  of  nature.  All  are 
parts  of  the  whole,  and  so  also  the  whole  is  re- 
vealed in  its  several  parts.  They  come  to  be  in 
thought,  as  well  as  in  reality,  reciprocal  conditions 
of  each  other ;  and  he  who  is  able  to  solve  the  pro- 
blem of  the  world  correctly  in  a  simple  movement  of 
an  atom,  would  be  able  to  explain  all  laws  and  all 
phenomena,  since  every  thing  may  ultimately  be  re- 
duced to  this  movement.  It  is  precisely  this  which 
has  been  attained  by  certain  laws,  so  that  the  study 
of  man  must  not  be  dissociated  from  this  conception. 
It  is  necessary  to  regard  him  as  a  product  of  the 
forces  of  nature,  with  which  he  has  certain  pro- 
perties in  common.  Although  man  may  appear  to 


36  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

be  a  special  and  peculiar  subject,  yet  be  is  connected 
witb  tbe  universal  system  in  which  he  lives  by  the 
elements,  phenomena,  and  forces  of  which  he  consists. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  as  it  is  asserted  with 
ever-increasing  clamour,  that  such  a  method  and 
theory  can  ever  destroy  the  civilized  basis  of  society, 
and  the  morality  and  dignity  with  which  it  should 
be  informed,  as  if  we  were  again  reducing  man  to 
the  condition  of  a  beast.  Such  an  outcry  is  in  itself 
a  plain  and  striking  proof  that  we  have  not  yet 
emerged  from  the  mythical  age  of  thought,  since 
it  is  precisely  a  mythical  belief  which  prompts  this 
angry  •  protest  against  the  noble  and  independent 
research  after  truth. 

It  is  impossible  that  the  results  of  positive  and 
rational  science  should  in  any  way  destroy  the  neces- 
sary conditions  of  civilized  life  and  of  the  high  standard 
of  goodness  which  should  form,  elevate,  and  bring  it 
to  perfection.  We  must,  however,  remember  that  it 
was  not  rational  science,  nor  the  ethics  of  law,  which 
established  the  a  priori  rules  of  a  just  and  free  society, 
but  the  necessities  of  society  itself  led  to  the  a  pos- 
teriori formulation  of  laws.  Theoretic  science  sub- 
sequently explained  these  laws,  and  perfected  their 
form  and  organism,  infusing  into  them  a  nobler  pur- 
pose ;  but  it  was  the  necessities  of  nature  which  first 
dictated  the  balance,  system,  and  harmony  of  the 
alliances  and  associations  of  materials  and  pheno- 
mena as  they  now  exist,  which  rendered  possible  the 


THE  IDEAS  AND   SOURCES   OF  MYTH.  37 

first  nucleus  of  human  society,  and  which,  in  course 
of  time,  brought  the  component  parts  into  definite 
relations  with  each  other.  It  was  subsequently  the 
reflex  and  fitting  work  of  thought  to  raise  upon  the 
foundation  laid  by  nature  a  rational  system  of  society, 
and  then  to  bring  its  rules  and  forms  to  perfection. 

Hence  it  follows  that  it  was  not  man,  nor  some 
extrinsic  mythical  power  which  arbitrarily  dictated 
the  code  of  private  and  social  life,  but  this  presented 
itself  to  man  as  a  spontaneous  result  of  the  world's 
law,  relatively  to  the  conditions  possible  for  social 
life.  For  if,  as  in  fact  is  the  case,  and  as  the  pro- 
gress of  knowledge  and  of  human  civilization  will 
abundantly  show,  the  true  and  eternal  laws  which 
make  society  possible,  and  consequently  its  standard 
of  righteousness,  are  innate  and  genuine  results  of 
universal  laws,  it  is  impossible  for  science  to  destroy 
the  inevitable  order  of  things,  and  to  reduce  mankind 
to  a  hideous  chaos. 

It  must  be  allowed  that  great  truths,  not  fully 
understood  by  incapable  preachers,  who  sometimes 
from  ignoble  motives  foment  the  turbid  instincts  of 
the  ignorant  multitude,  may  bring  about,  as  they  have 
done  of  old,  grave  evils  and  even  crimes  in  some 
places  and  for  a  short  time.  But  there  is  no  one  so 
foolish  or  so  ignorant  of  history  as  to  believe  that 
all  things  happen  in  the  best  possible  way,  and  in  a 
logical  sequence.  Such  evils  do  not  invalidate  or 
destroy  the  force  of  our  assertion  that  social  order  is 


38  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

derived  from  and  is  based  upon  the  order  of  nature. 
Although  savage  passions,  excited  by  an  imperfect 
understanding  of  the  truth,  do  from  time  to  time 
cause  the  overthrow  of  given  societies,  and  arouse 
the  horror  and  alarm  of  pessimist  votaries  of  myth, 
nature  is  not  thereby  overcome ;  she  still  triumphs, 
and  restores  the  order  which  has  been  interrupted, 
so  far  as  the  instinct  of  conservatism  and  the  here- 
ditary impulse  to  that  special  form  of  association  to 
which  each  people  are  accustomed  are  opposed  to  the 
revolutionary  spirit,  and  in  this  way  the  balance 
which  has  been  disturbed  is  re-established. 

When  men,  having  brought  their  intellectual,  and 
consequently  their  moral  sense  to  perfection,  are 
enabled  to  understand  this  natural  order  of  laws 
and  social  facts,  divested  of  extrinsic  mythical  beliefs, 
they  will  find  in  it  so  much  reciprocal  benefit,  and 
will  have  such  a  deep  sense  of  their  personal  dignity, 
since  they  are  intellectually  their  own  artificers,  that 
they  will  be  able  to  understand  how  the  highest  good 
has  ensued  and  will  ensue  from  the  sacrifices  or 
achievements  made  by  a  few  for  the  benefit  of  all. 
We  are  undoubtedly  still  a  long  way  from  such  happy 
conditions,  either  socially  or  as  individuals,  but  every 
day  brings  them  nearer,  and  it  is  to  this  end  that 
our  civilization  plainly  tends,  in  spite  of  all  the  com- 
plaints, the  fears,  and  sometimes  even  the  malevolence 
of  men. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  study  of  the  beginnings 


THE  IDEAS   AND   SOURCES   OF  MYTH.  39 

and  of  the  anthropological  conditions  of  the  various 
myths  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  understand  their 
psychical  phenomena,  together  with  the  hidden  laws 
of  the  exercise  of  thought.  The  learned  and  illus- 
trious Eibot  has  justly  said  that  psychology,  dis- 
sociated from  physiology  and  cognate  sciences,  is 
extinct,  and  that  in  order  to  bring  it  to  life  it  is 
necessary  to  follow  the  progress  and  methods  of  all 
other  contemporary  sciences.*  The  genesis  of  myth, 
its  development,  the  specification  and  integration  of 
its  beliefs,  as  well  as  the  several  intrinsic  and  ex- 
trinsic sources  whence  it  proceeds,  will  assign  to  it 
a  clearer  place  among  the  obscure  recesses  of  psy- 
chical facts ;  they  will  reveal  to  us  the  connection 
between  the  facts  of  consciousness  and  their  ante- 
cedents, between  the  world  and  our  normal  and 
abnormal  physiological  conditions;  they  will  show 
what  a  complex  drama  is  performed  by  the  action 
and  reaction  between  ourselves  and  the  things  within 

*  "Although  it  (psychology)  still  makes  some  show,  yet  the  old 
psychology  is  condemned.  Its  conditions  of  existence  have  disappeared 
in  its  new  environment.  Its  methods  no  longer  suffice  for  the  in- 
creasing difficulties  of  the  task  and  the  larger  requirements  of  the 
scientific  spirit.  It  is  constrained  to  live  upon  its  past.  Its  wisest 
representatives  have  vainly  attempted  a  compromise,  loudly  asserting 
that  facts  must  be  observed,  and  that  a  large  part  should  be  assigned 
to  experience.  Their  concessions  are  unavailing,  for  however  sincerely 
meant,  they  are  not  actually  carried  out.  As  soon  as  they  set  to  work 
the  taste  for  pure  speculation  again  possesses  them.  Moreover,  no 
reform  of  what  is  radically  false  can  be  effectual,  and  ancient  psy- 
chology is  a  bastard  conception,  doomed  to  perish  from  the  con- 
tradictions which  it  involves."  —  Kibot,  Psychologic  Allemande  Con- 
temporaine"  Paris,  1879. 


40  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

us,  and  also  will  declare  the  nature  of  the  laws  which 
govern  the  various  and  manifold  creation  of  forms, 
imaginations,  and  ideas,  and  the  artificial  world  of 
phantasms  derived  from  these.  In  this  way  myth 
will  appear  to  be  not  merely  due  to  the  direct 
animation  of  things,  varying  in  our  waking  state 
with  the  nature  of  the  exciting  cause ;  hut  it  also 
arises  from  the  normal  images  and  illusions  of 
dreams,  and  from  the  morbid  hallucinations  of  mad- 
ness, both  subjectively  in  the  case  of  the  person 
affected  by  them,  and  objectively  for  those  who  observe 
the  extrinsic  effects  in  gesture  and  speech,  and  the 
whole  bearing  of  the  sufferer. 

Every  one  must  admit  that  all  these  phenomena, 
and  the  beliefs  which  arise  from  them,  must  tend  to 
make  the  observation  of  psychical  life  more  easy,  just 
as  morbid  psychical  phenomena  often  explain  the 
natural  action  of  such  life  under  normal  conditions. 
These  phenomena,  so  closely  connected  with  physio- 
logical disturbances  which  are  beyond  the  control  of 
our  personal  will,  will  inform  us  of  the  biological 
relations  between  consciousness  and  thought  on  the 
one  side,  and  our  organism  on  the  other. 

The  mythical  faculty,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  follow- 
ing chapters,  combined  with  physiological  excitements, 
both  normal  and  abnormal,  generally  assumes  con- 
stant forms  in  the  various  and  manifold  world  of  its 
creation ;  constant  forms  which  conversely  also  reveal 
those  of  the  scientific  faculty.  In  this  way  the 


THE  IDEAS   AND   SOUKCES   OF  MYTH.  41 

development,  composition,  and  integration  of  a  myth, 
into  which  others  .are  fused  by  assimilation,  may  be 
said  to  explain  to  us  the  mode  in  which  systems  of 
philosophy  are  constituted,  and  to  manifest  to  us  in  a 
fanciful  way  the  underlying  mode  in  which  human 
thought  is  exercised. 

Nor  do  the  effects  and  importance  of  these  studies 
end  here  ;  they  are  also  the  necessary  foundation  of 
true  and  rational  sociology.  In  fact,  the  relations  of 
the  individual  to  the  world,  the  manifold  conditions 
caused  by  the  relations  of  persons  to  each  other,  the 
constitution  of  all  social  order,  and  the  various  modifi- 
cations of  that  order ;  all  these  are  resolved  into  the 
primitive  thought,  and  into  the  emotional  impulses  of 
mythical  prejudices  and  fancies,  and  in  these  they 
have  also  their  natural  sanction,  and  the  cardinal 
point  on  which  they  rest  and  revolve.  There  is  no 
society,  however  rude  and  primitive,  in  which  all 
these  relations,  both  to  the  individual  and  to  society 
at  large,  are  not  apparent,  and  these  are  based  on 
superstitious  and  mythical  beliefs.  Take  the  Tas- 
manians,  for  example,  one  of  the  peoples  which  has 
recently  become  extinct,  and  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  debased  in  the  social  scale,  and  we  have  in 
a  small  compass  a  picture  of  the  acts  and  beliefs  to 
be  found  in  their  embryonic  association. 

In  every  society,  however  rudimentary,  these  are 
held  to  be  important  facts  :  the  birth  of  individuals, 
which  is  their  entrance  into  the  society  itself,  and 


42  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

into  the  possession  of  its  privileges ;  marriages, 
funerals,  reciprocal  obedience  between  persons  and 
classes,  or  to  the  chief;  public  assemblies,  and  the 
existence  of  powers  equal  or  superior  to  living  men. 

Among  the  Tasmanians,  the  placenta  was  reli- 
giously venerated,  and  they  carefully  buried  it,  lest  it 
should  be  injured  or  devoured  by  animals.  If  the 
mother  died  in  childbirth  her  offspring  was  buried 
alive  with  her.  When  a  man  attained  puberty,  he 
was  bound  to  submit  to  certain  ceremonies,  some  of 
them  painful,  and  dictated  by  phallic  superstitions. 
Funeral  rites  were  simple :  the  corpse  was  either 
burnt,  with  howls  and  superstitious  functions,  or  it 
was  placed  in  the  hollow  trunk  of  a  tree  in  a  sitting 
position,  with  the  chin  supported  by  the  knees,  as 
was  the  custom  with  Peruvian  mummies;  and  the 
belief  in  another  world  prompted  them  to  place  the 
weapons  and  utensils  used  during  life  beside  the 
corpse.  Sometimes  a  wooden  lance,  with  fragments 
of  human  bones  affixed  to  it,  was  placed  below  the 
tumulus,  as  a  defence  for  the  dead  during  his  long 
sleep.  It  appears  from  these  customs,  and  from  others 
mentioned  by  Clarke,  that  they  had  a  vague  idea  of 
another  life,  holding  that  the  shades  went  up  to 
inhabit  the  stars,  or  flew  to  a  distant  island  where 
they  were  born  again  as  white  men.  These  beliefs 
were  necessarily  connected  with  the  rites  which  they 
fulfilled  when  living,  and  served  as  a  kind  of  obscure 
sanction  for  them. 


THE  IDEAS   AND   SOURCES   OF  MYTH.  43 

Milligan  and  Nixon  tell  us  that  the  Tasmanians 
believed  in  the  existence  of  evil  and  sometimes 
of  avenging  spirits,  destroyers  of  the  guilty.  They 
supposed  that  the  shades  of  their  friends  or  enemies 
returned,  and  caused  good  or  evil  to  befal  them  ; 
and  according  to  Milligan  there  were  four  kinds  of 
spirits.  Purely  superstitious  rites  were  used  for 
marriage.  Old  women  and  witches  were  often  the 
arbiters  of  peace  and  war  between  the  tribes,  and  they 
had  the  right  of  pardoning.  Sorcerers  intervened 
in  many  social  acts,  and  before  beginning  their  opera- 
tions and  incantations  they  revolved  the  mysterious 
Mooyumkarr,  an  oval  piece  of  wood  with  a  cord,  which 
was  certainly  connected  with  phallic  superstitions. 
Bonwick  asserts  that  on  many  private  and  public 
occasions,  the  more  skilled  sorcerers  called  up  spirits 
with  appropriate  ceremonies  and  formulas.  They 
were  powerful,  and  produced  diseases,  and  were  able 
to  exert  malign  influence,  and  the  urine  of  women, 
human  blood,  and  ashes  were  superstitiously  used  as 
remedies  against  their  spells. 

The  Tasmanian  who  wished  to  hurt  or  bewitch 
any  one,  procured  something  belonging  to  his  enemy, 
and  especially  his  hair;  this  was  enveloped  in  fat 
and  then  exposed  to  the  action  of  fire,  and  it  was 
thought  that  as  it  melted,  the  man  himself  would 
waste  away.  They  feared  lest  the  evil  spirit  evoked 
by  the  enchantments  of  an  enemy  might  creep  behind 
them  in  the  night  to  steal  away  the  renal  fat,  an 


44  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

organ  with  which  various  physiological  superstitions 
were  connected.  They  believed  that  stones,  especially 
certain  kinds  of  quartz  crystals,  were  means  of  com- 
munication with  spirits,  with  the  dead,  and  also  with 
absent  persons.  A  woman  often  wore  round  her  neck 
the  phallus  extracted  from  the  body  of  her  dead 
husband.  The  movements  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and 
some  of  their  phases,  had  a  mythical  bearing  on 
various  social  acts,  or  on  the  date  of  their  assemblies, 
since  the  sun  was  the  object  of  great  veneration ;  and 
the  full  moon,  the  epoch  of  assemblies,  was  celebrated 
with  feasting  and  dancing.  Dances  of  many  different 
kinds  were  connected  with  traditional  myths,  astro- 
logical superstitions,  and  the  phallic  worship.  Some 
remains  of  circular  buildings  and  concentric  com- 
partments, discovered  by  Field  and  others,  had 
reference  to  their  feasts,  assemblies,  and  dances. 
Among  their  cosmic  myths,  Milligari  has  preserved 
one  relating  to  the  double  stars  which  perhaps  refers 
to  the  invention  of  fire. 

From  this  cursory  view  of  the  conditions  of  society 
in  its  simplest  form,  and  among  the  most  savage 
peoples,  and  of  the  mythical  beliefs  which  prevailed 
under  such  conditions,  it  clearly  appears  how  myth, 
dating  from  the  first  beginnings  of  human  associa- 
tion, has  regarded,  invested,  sanctioned,  and  gene- 
rated all  special  acts  and  relations,  and  the  whole 
social  order,  both  private  and  public.  The  exercise 
of  thought  in  primitive  times  not  only  consisted  of 


THE  IDEAS   AND  SOURCES   OF  MYTH.  45 

mythical  beliefs  and  associations,  but  this  same  con- 
dition of  thought  reacted  on  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  and  on  all  social  facts.  For  if,  as  we  have 
already  observed,  more  rational  empirical  notions, 
and  a  certain  rude  form  of  scientific  faculty  made  its 
appearance  amid  those  mythical  ideas  which  were 
still  persistent,  its  various  forms  were  not  animated, 
sustained,  and  preserved  by  myth.  Hence  it  is  evident 
that  the  basis  of  the  genesis  of  sociology  as  a  whole 
consists  in  myth,  which  sanctions  its  acts  and  estab- 
lishes their  relations  to  each  other.  The  immense 
importance  of  these  studies,  even  for  the  right  under- 
standing of  the  laws  and  historical  evolution  which 
guide  and  govern  sociology,  is  evident  from  this  fact. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  such  a  vast  and  pro- 
found incarnation  of  myth  in  social  facts  is  peculiar  to 
the  primitive  ages ;  it  persists  and  is  maintained  in  all 
the  historical  phases  of  civilization,  even  of  the  higher 
races,  although  sometimes  in  a  dormant  form.  Even 
in  our  days,  any  one  who  considers  our  modes  of 
society,  the  organism,  customs,  ceremonies,  and 
manifold  and  complex  institutions  of  modern  life,  will 
readily  see  that  religious  influences  and  their  rites 
initiate,  sanction,  and  accompany  every  individual  and 
social  fact,  although  civil  and  religious  societies  are 
becoming  ever  more  distinct. 

Since,  therefore,  myth  is  a  constant  form  of 
sociology,  completely  invests  it,  and  accompanies  and 
animates  its  transmutations  down  to  our  days,  every- 


46  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

one  must  recognize  the  necessity  of  this  study  in 
order  to  understand  and  explain  the  true  history  of 
thought  and  of  sociology. 

The  energy,  the  power,  the  physical  and  intellec- 
tual worth  of  a  people  are  revealed  as  a  whole  in  its 
mythical  products,  whether  in  the  quality  and  great- 
ness of  their  beliefs,  in  the  greater  or  less  definiteness 
of  their  system,  or  in  their  development  into  more 
rational  notions  ;  and  from  the  complex  whole  we  can 
estimate  the  worth  of  their  civilization.  So  that, 
where  other  extrinsic  testimony  is  wanting,  the  study 
of  these  primitive  creations  will  reveal  to  us  their 
psychological  worth.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  com- 
parative psychology  of  peoples,  a  most  fruitful  science, 
which  not  only  teaches  us  to  rank  the  various  families 
of  peoples  according  to  their  relative  value,  but  it  is 
of  great  use  in  making  man  acquainted  with  himself, 
and  with  psychology  in  general. 

In  fact,  modern  psychology  can  only  advance  by 
means  of  observation  and  experiment,  which  con- 
stitute it  one  of  the  natural  sciences ;  and  this  is 
abundantly  proved  by  the  modern  English  schools, 
and  the  experimental  school  in  Germany.  Yet  ob- 
servation of  the  states  of  consciousness  taken  alone 
is  defective,  unless  it  is  enlarged  by  the  comparative 
examination  of  a  greater  number  of  subjects ;  nor 
must  ethnical  peculiarities  be  passed  over,  and  it  is 
precisely  these  which  are  included  in  the  comparative 
psychology  of  peoples.  The  large  amount  of  results, 


THE  IDEAS  AND  SOUKCES   OF  MYTH.  47 

their  infinite  variety,  and  at  the  same  time  a  certain 
uniformity  in  their  modes  of  beginning,  of  their 
development,  and  of  their  place  in  the  universe,  give 
a  splendid  illustration  of  the  innate  exercise  of  human 
thought ;  the  likenesses  as  well  as  the  contrasts  are 
instructive  as  to  its  real  nature. 

The  comparative  psychology  of  peoples,  studied 
from  this  point  of  view,  certainly  does  not  include  the 
whole  of  psychological  science,  which  requires  other 
instruments  and  other  modes  of  experience,  but  it  is  a 
great  help  as  a  foundation.  We  believe  that  the  study 
of  myth,  which  throws  so  much  light  on  comparative 
psychology,  is  likewise  of  use  for  the  special  psycho- 
logy of  man,  since  this  can  only  arise  from  indi- 
vidual and  ethnical  observation,  and  from  experiment, 
dissociated  from  every  hindrance,  and  from  meta- 
physical prejudice.  And  if  by  our  humble  essay  we 
can  throw  any  light  on  this  noble  science,  we  shall  be 
abundantly  rewarded. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

ANIMAL    SENSATION   AND   PERCEPTION. 

ALL  animals  communicate  with  each  other  and  with 
the  external  world  through  their  senses,  and  by 
means  of  their  perception,  both  internal  and  external, 
they  possess  knowledge  and  apprehension  of  one 
another.  In  the  vast  organic  series  of  the  animal 
kingdom,  some  are  better  provided  than  others  with 
methods,  instruments,  and  apparatus  fit  for  effecting 
such  communication.  The  senses  of  relation  are  not 
found  in  the  same  degree  in  all  animals,  nor  when 
such  senses  are  the  same  in  number  are  they  endowed 
with  equal  intensity,  acutcness,  and  precision.  But 
the  fundamental  fact  remains  the  same  in  all  cases  ; 
they  communicate  with  themselves  and  with  the 
external  world  through  their  senses. 

We  must  now  inquire  what  value  the  external 
object  of  perception,  considered  in  itself,  has  for  the 
animal,  what  character  it  has  and  assumes  with 
respect  to  his  inner  sense  in  the  act  of  perception 
or  apprehension.  Man,  and  especially  man  in  our 


ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  49 

days,  after  so  many  ages  of  reflection,  and  through 
the  influence  of  contemporary  science,  is  so  far  re- 
moved from  the  primitive  and  simple  exercise  of  his 
psychical  life,  that  he  finds  it  difficult  to  picture  to 
himself  the  ancient  and  spontaneous  conditions  under 
which  his  senses  communicated  with  the  world  and 
with  himself.  And  therefore,  without  further  con- 
sideration, he  thinks  and  believes  that  in  primeval 
times  everything  took  place  in  the  same  way  as  it 
does  at  present,  and,  which  is  a  still  greater  error, 
as  it  takes  place  in  the  lower  animals. 

This  identification  of  the  complex  machinery  of 
human  perception  with  that  of  animals  must  not  be 
regarded  as  an  absurd  paradox,  since,  as  we  have 
shown  in  an  earlier  work,  they  were  originally  and  in 
themselves  the  same.*  By  pursuing  an  easy  mode  of 
observation,  divested  of  prejudice,  we  may  revert  to 
that  primeval  state  of  human  nature,  and  may  also 
comprehend  with  truth  and  certainty  the  condition  of 
animals.  For  the  animal  nature  has  not  ceased 
to  exist  in  man,  and  it  may  be  discerned  by  those 
who  care  to  look  for  it ;  and  careful  study,  with  the 
constant  aid  of  observation  and  experiment,  will  reveal 
to  us  the  hidden  life  of  sensation  and  intelligence  in 
the  lower  animals. 

There  is  a  continual  self-consciousness  in  all 
animals ;  it  is  inseparable  from  all  their  internal  and 

*  Delia  legge  fondamentale  della  intelligenza  nel  regno  animate 
Milano.    Dumolard,  1877. 


50  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

external  acts,  from  every  fact,  passion,  and  emotion  ; 
and  this  is  clear  and  obvious.  This  fundamental  and 
persistent  self-consciousness — persistent  in  dreams, 
and  even  in  the  calmest  sleep,  which  is  always  accom- 
panied by  a  vague  sensation — is  the  consciousness  of 
a  living  subject,  active,  impressionable,  exercising  his 
will,  capable  of  emotions  and  passions.  It  is  not  the 
consciousness  of  an  inert  thing,  passive,  dead,  or 
extrinsic;  for  animal  life  consists  in  sensation  of 
greater  or  less  intensity,  but  always  of  sensation. 
Consequently,  such  a  consciousness  signifies  for  the 
animal  a  constant  apprehension  of  an  active  faculty 
exercised  intrinsically  in  himself,  and  it  makes  his 
life  into  a  mobile  drama,  of  which  he  is  implicitly 
conscious,  of  acts  and  emotions,  of  impulses,  desires, 
and  suspicions. 

This  inward  form  of  emotional  life  and  psychical 
and  organic  action,  into  which  the  whole  value  of 
personal  existence  is  resolved,  may  be  said  to  invest 
and  modify  all  the  animal's  active  relations  to  the 
external  world,  which  it  vivifies  and  modifies  accord- 
ing to  its  own  image.  The  subsequent  act  of  doubling 
the  faculties  which  takes  place  in  man  does  not  occur 
in  the  animal ;  a  process  which  modifies  through  the 
intellect  the  spontaneous  and  primitive  act.  Conse- 
quently, the  active  and  inward  sense  which  is  peculiar 
to  the  animal  is  renewed  in  him  by  the  external 
things  and  phenomena  of  nature  which  stimulate  and 
excite  him. 


ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  51 

Two  kinds  of  things  present  themselves  to  his 
perception  :  other  animals,  of  whatever  species,  and 
the  inanimate  objects  of  the  world.  As  far  as  the 
other  animals  are  concerned,  which  are  obvious  to 
his  perception,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  upon  these 
he  will  project  his  whole  internal  life  of  consciousness 
and  emotions,  and  will  feel  their  identity  with  him- 
self by  his  implicit  and  intuitive  judgment.  And  in 
fact,  the  movements,  sounds,  gestures,  and  forms  of 
other  animals  necessarily  cause  this  sense  of  inward 
psychical  identity,  whence  arises  the  implicit  notion 
of  an  animated  and  personal  subject.  Any  one  who 
observes,  however  superficially,  the  conduct  of  animals 
to  each  other  when  they  first  meet,  cannot  doubt 
this  truth  for  an  instant. 

Although  the  external  form  and  character  of 
the  animal  perceived  are  important  factors  of  the 
implicit  notion  of  an  animated  personal  subject, 
this  belief  is  even  more  due  to  the  animal's  inward 
consciousness  of  himself  as  a  living  subject  which 
is  reflected  in  the  extrinsic  form  of  the  other  and 
is  identified  with  it.  The  spontaneous  and  personal 
psychical  effort  does  not  decompose  the  object  per- 
ceived into  its  proper  elements  by  means  of  reflex 
attention,  but  it  is  immediately  projected  on  those 
phenomena  which  assume  a  form  analogous  to  the 
sentient  subject. 

The  fact  of  this  law  must  never  be  forgotten  in 
the  analysis  of  animal  intelligence  and  sensation. 


52  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

All  those  who  do  not  keep  clearly  in  view  the  real  ana 
genuine  character  of  the  sentient  and  intelligent 
faculty  in  animals  are  liable  to  error. 

In  addition  to  the  perceptions  we  have  mentioned, 
animals  have  a  perception  of  inanimate  things,  that 
is,  of  various  bodies  and  phenomena  of  nature. 
Although  the  form,  motion,  and  gestures  of  an  analo- 
gous and  personal  subject  are  wanting  in  these  cases, 
so  that  they  do  not  cause  extrinsically  the  same  im- 
plicit idea,  neither  do  they  remain,  as  with  a  cultivated 
and  rational  man,  things  and  qualities  of  independent 
existence,  disconnected  with  the  life  of  the  animal 
which  perceives  them,  exerting  no  intentional  efficacy, 
and  governed  by  necessary  laws  by  means  of  which 
they  act  and  exist. 

A  cultivated  and  rational  man,  by  the  reflex  and 
calm  examination  of  things,  can  correctly  distinguish 
these  two  classes  of  subjects  and  phenomena,  and 
cannot  as  a  rule  be  deceived  as  to  their  real  and 
relative  value  with  respect  to  them  and  to  himself. 
But  when  he  forgets  his  primary  intellectual  con- 
dition, and  does  not  perfectly  understand  the  per- 
manent condition  of  animals,  he  believes  that  their 
faculties  are  identical,  and  that  things,  qualities,  and 
phenomena  present  the  same  appearance  to  the  human 
and  the  animal  perception.  Yet  the  actual  nature  of 
the  thing,  so  far  as  it  is  estimated  by  our  perception  as 
an  object  different  from  ourselves  and  from  any  other 
animal,  cannot  be  so  apprehended  by  animals  which 


ANIMAL   SENSATION   AND   PERCEPTION.  53 

lack  the  analytical  faculty  in  the  perennial  flow  of 
their  perceptions ;  the  actual  and  inanimate  thing  is 
presented  to  them  only  by  the  intrinsic,  peculiar, 
personal,  and  psychical  quality  of  the  animal  itself. 

If  form,  and  characteristic  and  deliberate  action, 
are  wanting  to  the  substances  and  phenomena  of 
inanimate  nature,  qualities  which  more  readily 
arouse  in  animals  the  idea  of  a  subject  resembling 
and  analogous  to  themselves,  yet  there  always  remains 
the  apprehension  of  some  sort  of  form  in  which — not 
distinguished  from  the  others  by  reflex  action — the  in- 
ward faculty  of  sensation  and  emotion  is  repeated  and 
impersonated  by  the  perceiving  animal.  Thus  every 
form,  every  object,  every  external  phenomenon  becomes 
vivified  and  animated  by  the  intrinsic  consciousness 
and  personal  psychical  faculty  of  the  animal  itself. 
Every  object,  fact,  and  phenomenon  of  nature  will  not 
merely  appear  to  him  as  the  real  object  which  it  is, 
but  he  will  necessarily  perceive  it  as  a  living  and 
deliberating  power,  capable  of  affecting  him  agreeably 
or  injuriously. 

Every  one  is  aware  of  the  jealous,  suspicious 
nature  of  animals,  and  that  they  are  not  only  in- 
quisitive about  other  animals,  but  about  every 
material  object  which  they  see  unexpectedly,  which 
moves  in  an  unusual  way,  or  which  interferes  with 
or  injures  them. 

It  must  have  been  often  observed  how  they  turn 
against  any  object  which  has  chanced  to  hurt  them, 


54:  MYTH   AND  SCIENCE. 

or  which  has  annoyed  them  by  regular  and  re- 
peated motions,  how  they  start  at  the  sudden  appear- 
ance or  oscillation  of  some  unlooked-for  thing,  at  an 
unusual  light,  a  colour,  a  stone,  a  plant,  at  the  flut- 
tering of  branches,  of  clothes,  or  weathercocks,  at 
the  rush  of  water,  at  the  slightest  movement  or 
sound  in  the  twilight,  or  in  the  darkness  of  "night. 
They  look  about,  and  consider  all  things  and  pheno- 
mena as  subjects  actuated  by  will,  and  as  having  an 
immediate  influence  on  their  lives,  either  beneficent 
or  injurious. 

Undoubtedly  they  do,  as  a  rule,  by  means  of  their 
implicit  judgment,  distinguish  animals  as  of  a  dif- 
ferent type  from  other  objects,  but  they  transfuse 
into  everything  their  own  personality  and  their  in- 
trinsic consciousness.  This  is  the  case  with  the  whole 
animal  kingdom,  at  least  with  those  whose  internal 
emotion  can  be  gathered  from  their  external  move- 
ments and  gestures. 

An  animal  is  sometimes  aware  that  an  enemy 
which  may  lie  in  wait  for  and  destroy  him  has 
approached  the  neighbourhood  of  his  haunts,  or  at 
any  rate  may  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  his 
ordinary  life,  and  he  withdraws  as  far  as  he  can  from 
this  new  peril  or  injury,  and  seeks  to  defend  himself 
from  the  malice  of  his  enemy  by  special  arts.  In 
this  case,  the  external  subject  or  thing  is  what  his 
own  objective  sense  conceives  it  to  be,  and  his  inward 
perception  corresponds  to  an  actual  cosmic  reality. 


ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  55  . 

Suppose  that  instead  of  this,  the  neighbourhood  of 
a  fierce  fire,  or  violent  rain  and  hail,  or  a  stormy  wind, 
or  some  other  natural  phenomenon,  surprises  or  in- 
jures such  creatures ;  these  facts  do  not  affect  them 
as  if  they  were  merely  occurrences  in  accordance  with 
cosmic  laws,  for  such  a  simple  conception  of  things  is 
not  grasped  by  them.  Such  phenomena  of  nature 
are  regarded  by  animals  as  living  subjects,  actuated 
by  a  concrete  and  deliberate  purpose  of  ill-will  towards 
them.  Any  one  who  has  observed  animals  as  I  have 
done  for  many  years,  both  in  a  wild  and  domestic 
state,  and  under  every  variety  of  conditions  and 
circumstances,  will  readily  admit  the  fact. 

This  truth,  which  clearly  appears  from  an  accurate 
analysis  of  facts,  and  from  experiments,  can  also  be 
demonstrated  by  the  arguments  of  reason.  Since 
animals  have  no  conception  of  the  purely  cosmic 
reality  of  the  phenomena  and  laws  which  constitute 
nature,  it  follows  that  such  a  reality  must  appear  to 
their  inner  consciousness  in  its  various  effects  as  a 
subject  vaguely  identical  with  their  own  psychical 
nature.  Hence  they  regard  nature  as  if  she  were 
inspired  with  the  same  life,  will,  and  purpose,  as 
those  which  they  themselves  exercise,  and  of  which 
they  have  an  immediate  and  intrinsic  consciousness. 

It  is  true  that  after  long  experience  animals  be- 
come accustomed  to  regard  as  harmless  the  pheno- 
mena, objects,  and  forces  by  which  they  were  at 
first  sympathetically  excited  and  terrified.  Of  this 


56  MYTH  AND    SCIENCE. 

we  have  innumerable  examples  both  among  wild 
and  domestic  animals ;  but  although  suspicion  and 
anxiety  are  subdued  by  habit  and  experience,  yet  these 
objects  and  phenomena  are  not  thereby  transformed 
into  pure  and  simple  realities.  In  the  same  way,  if 
they  are  at  first  frightened  by  the  sight  and  com- 
panionship of  some  other  species  or  object,  habit 
and  experience  gradually  calm  their  fears  and  sus- 
picions, and  the  association  or  neighbourhood  may 
even  become  agreeable  to  them.  I  have  often  ob- 
served that  different  species,  both  when  at  liberty 
and  in  confinement,  are  affected  by  the  most  lively 
surprise  and  perturbation  when  some  new  pheno- 
menon has  startled  them ;  they  act  as  if  it  were 
really  a  living  and  insidious  subject,  and  then  they 
gradually  become  calm  and  quiet,  and  regard  it  as 
some  indifferent  or  beneficent  power. 

I  must  adduce  some  observations  and  experiments 
from  the  many  I  have  made  on  this  subject.  It  may 
be  objected  that  if  animals  in  their  spontaneous  per- 
ception personify  the  object  in  question,  they  would 
give  signs  of  this  fact  with  respect  to  all  the  objects 
with  which  they  come  in  contact,  and  among  which 
they  live,  and  yet  they  remain  indifferent  to  many 
of  them,  which  is  a  proof  that  they  distinguish  the 
animate  from  the  inanimate.  In  fact  it  cannot  be 
disputed  that  a  vast  number  of  the  phenomena  and 
objects  of  nature  are  regarded  by  animals  with  in- 
difference ;  they  are  perceived  by  them,  but  it  does 


ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  57 

not  appear  that  they  suppose  these  things  to  be  en- 
dowed with  life.  It  is,  however,  necessary  in  the 
first  place  to  distinguish  two  modes  and  stages  in 
this  animation  of  things,  one  of  which  we  may  term 
static,  and  the  other  dynamic.  In  the  first  instance, 
the  sentient  subject  remains  tranquil  at  the  very 
moment  when  he  vivifies  the  phenomenon  or  the 
thing  perceived;  while  the  act  is  accomplished  with 
so  much  animating  force,  and  with  an  implicit  and 
fugitive  consciousness,  it  exerto  no  immediate  and 
sudden  influence  on  the  perceiving  animal,  and  con- 
sequently he  gives  no  external  signs  of  the  per- 
sonifying character  of  his  perception.  In  the  second 
instance,  which  we  have  termed  dynamic,  that  is, 
when  the  phenomenon  or  object  has  a  direct  and 
sudden  effect  on  the  animal  himself,  he  expresses  by 
his  movements,  gestures,  cries,  and  other  signs,  how 
instantaneously  he  considers  and  feels  the  object  in 
question  to  be  alive,  for  he  behaves  in  exactly  the 
same  way  towards  real  animals. 

Animals  are  accustomed  to  show  such  indiffer- 
ence towards  numerous  objects  that  it  might  be 
supposed  that  they  have  an  accurate  conception  of 
what  is  inanimate  ;  but  this  arises  from  habit,  from 
long  experience,  and  partly  also  from  the  hereditary 
disposition  of  the  organism  towards  this  habit.  But 
if  the  object  should  act  in  any  unusual  way,  then  the 
animating  process  which,  as  we  have  just  said,  was 
rendered  static  by  its  habitual  exercise,  again  becomes 


58  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.    . 

dynamic,  and  the  special  and  permanent  character  of 
the  act  is  at  once  revealed.  We  have  experience  of 
this  fact  in  ourselves,  although  we  are  now  capable 
of  immediately  distinguishing  between  the  animate 
and  the  inanimate,  and  man  alone  has,  or  can  have, 
a  rational  conception  of  what  are  really  cosmic  objects 
or  things.  Yet  if  we  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  see 
some  object  move  in  a  strange  way,  which  we  know 
from  experience  to  be  inanimate,  the  innate  inclina- 
tion to  personify  it  takes  effect,  and  for  a  moment 
we  are  amazed,  as  if  the  phenomenon  were  produced 
by  deliberate  power  proper  to  itself. 

I  have  kept  various  kinds  of  animals  for  several 
years,  in  order  to  observe  them  and  try  experiments 
at  my  convenience.  I  have  suddenly  inserted  an 
unfamiliar  object  in  the  various  cages  in  which  I  have 
kept  birds,  rabbits,  moles,  and  other  animals.  At  first 
sight  the  animal  is  always  surprised,  timid,  curious,  or 
suspicious,  and  often  retreats  from  it.  By  degrees  his 
confidence  returns,  and  after  keeping  out  of  the  way 
for  some  time,  he  becomes  accustomed  to  it,  and 
resumes  his  usual  habits.  If  then,  by  a  simple 
arrangement  of  strings  already  prepared,  I  move  the 
object  to  and  fro,  without  showing  myself,  the  animal 
scuttles  about  and  is  much  less  easily  reconciled  to 
its  appearance.  T  have  tried  this  experiment  with 
various  animals,  and  the  result  is  almost  always  the 
same. 

In  the  cage  of  a  very  tame  thrush,  I  made  a 


ANIMAL   SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  59 

movable  bottom  to  his  feeding  trough,  so  arranged 
that  by  suddenly  pulling  a  cord,  the  food  which  it 
contained  could  be  raised  or  lowered.  When  every- 
thing remained  stationary  in  its  place  the  thrush  ate 
with  lively  readiness,  but  as  soon  as  I  raised  the  food 
he  nearly  always  flew  off  in  alarm.  When  the  ex- 
periment had  been  often  repeated,  he  did  not  like  to 
come  near  the  feeding  trough,  and — which  is  a  still 
stronger  proof  that  he  imagined  the  food  itself  to  be 
endowed  with  life — he  often  refused  to  approach,  or 
only  approached  in  fear  the  sopped  bread  which  was 
placed  outside  the  trough.  I  tried  the  same  experi- 
ment with  other  birds,  and  nearly  always  with  the 
same  result. 

On  another  occasion  I  repeatedly  waved  a  white 
handkerchief  before  a  spirited  horse,  bringing  it  close 
to  his  eyes ;  at  first  he  looked  at  it  suspiciously  and 
shied  a  little,  but  without  being  much  discomposed, 
and  I  continued  the  experiment  until  he  became 
accustomed  to  its  ordinary  appearance.  One  day  I 
and  a  friend  went  out  driving  with  this  horse,  and 
I  directed  a  man,  while  we  were  passing  at  a  moderate 
pace,  to  wave  the  same  handkerchief,  attached  to  a 
stick,  in  such  a  way  that  his  person  on  the  other  side  of 
the  hedge  was  invisible.  The  horse  was  scared  and 
shied  violently,  and  even  in  the  stable  he  could  not 
see  the  handkerchief  without  trembling,  and  it  was 
difficult  to  reconcile  him  to  the  sight  of  it.  I  re- 
peated the  experiment  with  slight  variations  on  other 


60  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

horses,  and  the  issue  was  always  inore  or  less  the 
same. 

Again,  I  placed  a  scarecrow  or  bogey  in  a  parti- 
coloured dress  in  the  spacious  kennel  of  a  hound 
while  he  was  absent  from  it.  When  the  dog  wished 
to  return  to  his  kennel,  he  drew  back  at  the  sight 
of  it,  and  barked  for  a  long  while.  After  going  back- 
wards and  forwards,  snuffing  suspiciously,  he  decided 
to  enter,  but  he  remained  on  the  threshold  of  the 
kennel,  anxiously  inspecting  the  bogey.  In  a  few 
days,  however,  he  became  accustomed  to  it,  and  was 
indifferent  to  its  presence.  I  ought  to  add  that  I  had 
taught  him  on  the  first  day,  by  punishment  and 
admonition,  that  he  must  not  destroy  the  bogey.  One 
day  when  the  dog  was  lying  down  I  violently  moved 
the  puppet's  arms  by  a  cord,  and  he  jumped  up  and 
ran  barking  out  of  the  kennel,  soon  returning  to  bark 
as  he  had  done  at  first.  Finally,  he  again  became 
accustomed  to  it,  but  whenever  I  repeated  the  move- 
ment with  greater  violence,  it  took  a  long  while  for 
him  to  become  reconciled  to  it. 

I  put  into  a  room  various  kinds  of  wild  birds, 
which  had  been  taken  in  nets  after  they  were  full 
grown.  The  window,  which  looked  upon  a  garden, 
was  unglazed,  and  closed  by  a  wire  netting,  through 
which  the  outer  air  entered  and  was  constantly  re- 
newed. I  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  room  a  pot 
containing  a  shrub  of  some  size,  on  which  the  birds 
used  to  perch.  Since  they  had  been  reared  in  the 


ANIMAL  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.     61 

open  air  they  were  certainly  accustomed  to  the  wind, 
and  to  the  way  in  which  it  moves  trees  and  branches, 
so  that  they  were  not  alarmed  by  a  phenomenon 
which  they  recognized  from  experience.  I  fastened 
a  cord  to  the  head  of  the  shrub  which  I  passed 
through  a  hole  in  the  door,  making  another  to  look 
through,  and  in  this  way  I  moved  it  to  and  fro  as 
the  wind  might  have  done.  One  day  when  there 
was  a  high  wind  which  could  be  heard  in  the  room, 
and  when  the  current  of  air  through  the  window 
was  perceptible,  I  tried  the  experiment  when  the  con- 
ditions of  resemblance  were  perfect.  And  yet  when 
the  violent  movement  and  oscillation  of  the  shrub  was 
combined  with  the  noise  of  the  wind,  the  frightened 
birds  all  fluttered  about,  and  after  repeating  the 
movement,  and  then  allowing  it  to  subside,  they  kept 
away  from  the  shrub  and  did  not  dare  to  settle 
on  it. 

At  another  time,  aided  by  an  ingenious  young 
friend,  I  constructed  a  toy  windmill,  of  which  the 
vanes  were  moved  by  weights.  I  placed  this  toy 
in  a  cage,  so  arranged  that  its  motions  could  be 
regulated  from  the  outside,  and  I  put  into  the  cage 
a  sparrow,  which  had  been  taken  from  the  nest,  and 
which  consequently  had  no  experience  of  the  external 
world.  Much  patience  was  needed,  since  the  toy  re- 
quired careful  adjustment  and  was  easily  thrown  out 
of  gear,  but  I  managed  it  at  last.  The  sparrow  pecked 
at  the  little  mill  as  soon  as  he  was  put  into  the  cage, 


62  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  he  grew  up  accustomed  to  its  motions.  I  then 
took  the  sparrow  out  of  the  cage  and  put  in  a  finch, 
which  had  also  been  taken  from  the  nest,  but  was 
reared  far  from  such  a  machine,  and  he  was  frightened 
and  did  not  reconcile  himself  to  it  for  some  time.  I 
exchanged  this  bird  for  a  goldfinch  which  had  been 
caught  after  he  was  full  grown,  and  his  alarm  at  the 
little  mill  was  so  great  that  he  did  not  dare  to  move. 

In  a  ground  floor  room  which  I  used  as  my  study, 
I  hung  an  old  sheet,  which  reached  to  the  ground,  on 
a  long  spear  inserted  in  a  heavy  wooden  disk ;  I 
surmounted  it  with  a  ragged  hunting  cap,  and  so 
arranged  the  sheet  as  to  give  it  some  resemblance 
to  the  human  form.  When  my  dog  came  in  as 
usual,  he  looked  suspiciously  at  the  object,  snuffing 
about  and  gradually  approaching  to  walk  round 
and  observe  it.  At  last  he  was  satisfied,  and  curled 
himself  up  by  the  skirts  of  the  bogey,  where  I 
had  placed  the  mat  on  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
lie  when  he  was  with  me.  One  evening  when  the 
moon  shone  doubtfully  and  there  was  just  light 
enough  to  distinguish  the  outline  of  things,  I  carried 
the  shapeless  bogey  into  the  garden  near  my  room, 
and  placed  it  among  some  shrubs  and  bushes.  I 
went  back  to  the  house  and  called  my  dog,  who 
followed  me  quietly  until  he  reached  the  spot  from 
which  he  could  see  the  bogey  distinctly  enough 
for  him  to  recognize  its  identity  with  the  one  with 
which  he  was  already  familiar.  As  soon  as  he  saw 


ANIMAL   SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  63 

the  apparition  he  stood  still,  growling  furiously; 
he  began  to  bark,  and  when  I  encouraged  him  to 
come  on,  he  turned  round  and  ran  back  to  the  house. 
I  shut  up  the  dog  in  another  room,  brought  back 
the  bogey  to  its  former  place,  and  threw  a  strong  light 
upon  it  before  recalling  the  dog.  At  the  first  sight 
of  the  bogey  the  dog  paused  suspiciously  for  an 
instant,  but  when  I  sat  down  to  the  table  as  usual, 
he  hesitated  a  little  and  after  snuffing  at  it  went  back 
to  his  couch. 

I  have  made  similar  experiments  with  dogs, 
rabbits,  birds,  and  other  animals.  I  took  long 
wooden  poles,  and  put  them  inside  their  cages  or 
hutches  in  such  a  way  that  the  animals  got  to  know 
and  feel  reconciled  to  the  sight  of  them.  After  some 
days  had  elapsed,  I  contrived,  while  screened  from 
sight,  to  take  the  poles  from  their  usual  place  and 
to  make  them  touch  and  annoy  the  animals  with 
more  or  less  violence,  thus  causing  them  to  flutter  or 
scamper  about  and  to  shrink  away,  as  if  from  the 
touch  of  a  living  person,  although  they  were  unable, 
as  I  have  said,  to  see  me  or  my  hand.  Those  which 
were  least  agitated  sprang  forward  with  little  leaps 
and  looked  about  them,  doubtful  and  excited.  I 
might  go  on  to  describe  many  other  experiments  made 
with  the  same  object,  and  always  with  the  same 
result,  but  these  are  enough  to  show  that  I  went  to 
work  cautiously  and  conscientiously,  that  the  spon- 
taneous and  innate  personification  of  the  objects 
4 


64  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

perceived  by  animals  is  clearly  apparent,  and  also 
how  we  may  account  for  their  indifference  to  those 
to  which  they  become  accustomed. 

Among  animals  the  necessity  of  finding  food  is 
the  great  and  unfailing  stimulus  towards  the  exercise 
of  their  vital  functions ;  food  which  may,  as  we  all 
know,  be  vegetable,  animal,  or  a  combination  of  both 
kinds.  It  is  evident  that  in  the  case  of  carnivorous 
animals  the  object  which  satisfies  this  desire  is  a 
living  subject,  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  become 
possessed  by  arts,  wiles,  sometimes  by  a  fierce  and 
cruel  conflict.  In  these  cases,  animals  are  in  con- 
stant communication  with  an  animal  world  resembling 
their  own,  and  the  objective  reality  is  -for  the  most 
part  resolved  into  living  subjects,  endowed  with  con- 
sciousness and  will.  But  neither  is  the  vegetable  food 
of  herbivorous,  frugivorous,  and  graminivorous  animals 
regarded  by  them,  as  it  is  by  us,  as  a  material  and 
unconscious  satisfaction  of  their  wants  ;  these  grasses, 
grains,  and  leaves  appear  to  animals  to  be  living, 
powers  which  it  is  necessary  to  conquer,  animated 
subjects  endowed  with  life,  but  for  the  most  part 
inoffensive,  and  which,  unlike  the  living  prey  of  car- 
nivora,  offer  no  resistance. 

Observe  the  way  in  which  an  herbivorous  or  grami- 
nivorous animal  becomes  excited  and  angry  when  the 
branch  or  the  ear  of  corn  obstinately  adheres  to  the 
ground,  or  oners  any  other  difficulty  to  his  immediate 
desire  of  obtaining  food  ;  he  acts  like  one  who  has  to 


ANIMAL   SENSATION  AND   PERCEPTION.  65 

do  with  a  resisting  power.  Observe  how,  when  they 
are  quietly  stripping  the  hough,  picking  out  the 
grains,  or  eating  the  grass,  they  become  suspicious, 
or  fly  away  if  there  should  be  any  unusual  move- 
ment in  the  bough,  the  ears  of  corn,  or  the  grass. 
In  one  way  or  another  their  food  is  regarded  as  a 
subject  endowed  with  sympathetic  and  deliberate 
consciousness.  And  every  one  must  have  observed 
that  animals  at  play  act  towards  inanimate  objects  as 
if  they  were  conscious  and  endowed  with  will. 

Every  object  of  animal  perception  is  therefore 
felt,  or  implicitly  assumed,  to  be  a  living,  conscious, 
acting  subject.  This  is  due  to  the  external  reflection 
and  projection  of  the  intrinsic  and  sentient  faculty, 
and  therefore — since  an  animal  has  not  the  duplex 
faculty  of  deliberate  and  reflex  attention — he  cannot 
attain  to  the  conception  of  simple  external  reality,  of 
cosmic  things  and  phenomena.  Every  object,  every 
phenomenon  is  for  him  a  deliberating  power,  a  living 
subject,  in  which  consciousness  and  will  act  as  they 
do  in  himself.  There  are  undoubtedly  in  the  vast 
series  of  beings  which  compose  the  order  of  nature, 
and  which  he  is  able  to  perceive,  degrees,  differences, 
and  varieties  of  energy,  power,  and  efficacy  with 
respect  to  himself  and  to  the  normal  exercise  of  his 
life.  But  he  transfuses  into  all,  in  proportion  to  the 
effects  which  result  from  them,  his  own  nature,  and 
modifies  them  in  accordance  with  the  intrinsic  form 
of  his  consciousness,  his  emotions,  and  his  instincts. 


66  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

The  external  world  appears  to  animals  to  be  a  great 
and  mighty  movement  and  congeries  of  living,  con- 
scious, deliberating  beings,  and  the  value  of  the  phe- 
nomenon or  thing  is  great  in  proportion  to  its  effect 
on  the  animal  itself.  The  objective  and  simple  reality, 
as  it  appears  to  man,  has  no  existence  for  animals ; 
from  the  nature  of  their  intelligence  they  cannot 
attain  to  any  explicit  conception  of  it,  so  that  this 
reality  is  resolved  and  modified  into  their  own  image. 
The  eternal  and  infinite  flux,  by  which  all  things  come 
and  go  in  obedience  to  laws  which  are  permanent  and 
enduring,  appears  to  animals  to  be  a  vast  and  con- 
fused dramatic  company  in  which  the  subjects,  with 
or  without  organic  form,  are  always  active,  working 
in  and  through  themselves,  with  benign  or  malignant, 
pleasing  or  hurtful  influence.  It  is  for  this  reason, 
and  this  reason  only,  that  their  life  of  consciousness 
and  of  relation  is  so  deeply  seated  and  so  readily 
excited.  Nor  do  animals  ever  believe  themselves  to 
be  alone  among  inanimate  things ;  even  when  not 
surrounded  by  allied  or  different  species,  they  have 
the  sense  of  living  amid  the  manifold  forms  of  con- 
scious and  deliberating  life  which  the  world  contains. 

This  constant  and  deliberate  animation  of  all  the 
objects  and  phenomena  of  nature  is  spontaneous  and 
necessary  owing  to  the  psychical  and  organic  con- 
stitution of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  it  resolves  itself 
into  a  universal  personification  of  the  phenomena 
themselves.  In  fact,  the  animal's  intrinsic  psychical 


ANIMAL   SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  67 

personality  is  infused  and  transformed  into  each  of 
them  with  more  or  less  intensity  and  vigour ;  the 
phenomena  are  perceived  by  each  individual  just  as 
far  as  he  assimilates  them,  and  he  is  constantly  as- 
similating himself  to  them.  His  communication  with 
the  external  world  is  in  proportion  with  its  internal 
reflection  on  himself,  and  he  understands  just  as 
much  as  his  own  nature  enables  him  to  grasp. 

A  careful  consideration  therefore  shows  that  the 
conditions  of  animal  knowledge  consist  in  endowing 
the  phenomena  and  objects  of  nature  with  conscious- 
ness and  will.  I  think  that  this  truth  will  prove  a 
certain  guide  and  beacon  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
origin  of  myth  and  science  in  man. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HUMAN    SENSATION   AND   PERCEPTION. 

IN  man,  as  it  has  been  clearly  proved,  sensations  and 
perceptions  occur  both  physiologically  and  psychi- 
cally just  as  they  do  in  animals.  If  science  and  the 
rational  process  of  the  interpretation  of  things  have 
their  origin  and  are  evolved  in  us  by  the  duplication 
of  our  faculties,  such  a  function,  which  is  due  to  this 
duplication,  is  very  slowly  developed  and  exercised, 
and  in  its  origin,  as  an  effort  of  the  intelligence,  it 
does  not  differ  from  that  of  animals. 

It  is  true  that  the  internal  act  of  the  higher 
faculty  of  reflection  has  hardly  taken  place  before  man 
unconsciously  enters  on  a  new  and  vast  apprentice- 
ship, which  soon  distinguishes  him  from  and  exalts 
him  above  the  animal  kingdom ;  science  has  already 
put  forth  its  first  germ.  But  the  reasoning  and 
simply  animal  faculties  were  so  mingled,  that  for  a 
long  while  they  were  confounded  together  in  their 
effects  and  results,  as  well  as  in  their  natural 
methods.  We  must  therefore  begin  by  considering 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.     69 

the  nature  of  this  primitive  human  perception,  in 
some  degree  identical  with  that  of  animals,  so  that 
they  may  be  estimated  to  be  of  equal  value,  at  any 
rate  in  their  first  results  and  arts. 

The  vivid  self-consciousness,  inseparable  at  all 
times  from  every  act,  passion,  and  emotion,  actuates 
man  and  animals  alike ;  he  has  this  consciousness  in 
common  with  all  other  animals,  and  especially  with 
those  superior  orders  which  are  nearest  to  himself. 
The  further  perception  of  extrinsic  things  and  pheno- 
mena occurs  after  the  same  manner  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  same  physiological  and  psychical  laws. 
By  the  intrinsic  law  of  animal  nature,  as  it  is 
adapted  to  his  cosmic  environment,  we  see  the  cause 
and  necessity  of  the  transfusion  and  projection  of 
himself  into  everything  which  he  perceives;  whence 
it  follows  that  he  regards  these  things  as  living, 
conscious,  and  deliberating  subjects ;  and  this  is  also 
the  case  with  man,  who  animates  and  endows  with 
life  all  which  surrounds  him  and  which  he  perceives. 

In  fact,  in  man's  spontaneous  and  immediate  per- 
ception and  apprehension  of  any  object  or  external 
phenomenon,  especially  in  early  life,  the  innate  effects 
are  instantaneous,  and  correspond  with  the  real  con- 
stitution of  the  function;  analysis  and  reflex  atten- 
tion necessarily  and  slowly  succeed  to  this  primitive 
animal  act  in  the  course  of  human  development. 
Consequently  the  true  character  and  value  of  its  effect 
on  the  perception  are  the  same  in  man  and  animals. 


70  MYTH   AND  SCIENCE. 

If  in  this  psychical  and  organic  fact  of  perception, 
man  is  at  first  absolutely  in  the  conditions  of  animals, 
identical  effects  must  be  produced;  and  this  was 
originally  the  case,  as  far  as  man  himself  and  ex- 
ternal things  were  concerned.  The  powerful  self- 
consciousness  which  actuates  man  and  animals  alike 
is  projected  on  the  objects  or  phenomena  perceived, 
and  they  see  them  transformed  into  living,  deliberat- 
ing subjects.  In  this  way  the  world  and  all  which 
it  contains  appears  to  be  a  congeries  of  beings, 
actuated  by  will  and  consciousness,  and  powerful  for 
good  or  evil,  and  in  practice  they  seek  to  modify,  to 
encourage,  or  to  avoid  such  influence.  The  ultimate 
effect  of  this  action,  assumed  to  be  intentional  in  all 
and  each  of  these  subjects,  will  be  their  personification, 
either  vaguely  or  definitely,  but  always  as  a  power 
active  for  good  or  ill. 

If  we  trace  back  the  memories  of  historic  and 
civilized  peoples  into  the  twilight  of  their  origin,  at 
a  time  when  they  were  still  barbarous,  and  little 
removed  from  their  primitive  savage  conditions,  we 
shall  find,  the  further  we  go  back,  the  more  vivid, 
general,  and  multiform  will  the  mythological  inter- 
pretation and  conception  of  the  world  and  its  various 
phenomena  appear  to  be ;  everything  was  personified 
by  these  primitive  peoples  in  a  way  common  to  the 
animal  and  human  consciousness  alike. 

Of  this  the  testimony  remaining  in  the  most 
ancient  verses  of  the  first  Veda  is  a  sufficient  proof. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEECEPTION.     71 

At  the  epoch  of  their  composition  the  human  race 
had  made  some  relative  progress  in  morals  and  civili- 
zation ;  yet  we  find  that  psychical  human  life  was 
transfused  and  projected  into  everything:  maa  per- 
sonified each  phenomenon  and  force  of  nature  in 
accordance  with  his  own  image. 

For  example,  fire  in  general  was  personified  and 
identified  with  humanity  in  Agni ;  even  the  shape 
taken  by  the  flames,  all  which  was  required  to  light 
the  fire,  the  whole  process  of  the  sacrifice,  even  the 
doors  of  the  altar-railing,  the  prayer  and  oblation  to 
the  god.* 

We  also  learn  from  the  solemn  and  ancient  songs 
of  the  Eig-Veda  that  all  terrestrial,  meteorological, 
and  celestial  phenomena  were  more  or  less  vaguely 
personified.  These  facts  recur  in  all  the  earliest 
recollections  of  civilized  peoples.  If  we  turn  from 
these  to  observe  the  savage  races  of  modern  times, 
and  the  most  barbarous  tribes  still  extant  in  conti- 
nents and  isles  far  removed  from  culture  and  science, 
we  shall  again  find  the  same  beliefs.  The  range 
of  absurd  personifications,  degenerating  into  the 
most  trivial  and  varied  forms  of  fetish  worship, 
becomes  wider,  and  its  influence  deeper,  in  proportion 
to  the  rude  and  barbarous  condition  of  the  tribe  or 
stock  in  which  they  appear. 

*  See,  among  other  works  on  the  subject,  Die  Herdbkwift  des 
Feuers  und  des  Gottertranks,  by  Adalbert  Kuhn;  and  Croyances  et 
Lfgendes  de  I'Antiquite"  by  A.  Maury. 


72  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Even  among  ourselves,  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
civilized  European  nations  of  modern  times,  how 
much  mythology  still  lingers  in  the  lower  classes, 
both  in  cities  and  the  country.  It  flourishes  in  pro- 
portion to  the  ignorance  and  want  of  culture  of  the 
people,  as  those  know  who  have  really  studied  the 
intellectual  conditions  of  all  classes  in  our  time.* 

In  the  child  just  beginning  to  walk,  to  move  freely, 
and  to  talk,  and  even  at  a  later  age,  in  cases  in  which 
the  reflective  faculty  is  weak,  and  when  it  approxi- 
mates more  to  the  psychical  and  organic  conditions 
of  animals,  such  a  projection  of  self  and  personifica- 
tion of  surrounding  objects  is  evident  to  all.  For 
this  reason  a  child  transforms  all  which  it  seizes 
or  plays  with  into  a  person  or  animal,  and  when 
alone  with  them  it  talks,  shouts,  and  laughs,  as  if 
such  objects  could  really  feel,  act,  and  obey;  in 
short,  as  if  they  were  real  persons  or  animals.  So 
strong  is  the  childish  instinct,  or,  as  I  might  say, 
the  law  of  its  being  to  project  and  transfuse  itself 
into  objects,  that  it  is  apt  to  speak  of  itself  in 
the  third  person.  A  child  seldom  says,  "  I  will," 
or  "I  am  hungry,"  but  "Louis  wants,"  "Louis  is 
hungry,"  or  whatever  his  name  may  be.  This  pheno- 
menon reappears  in  the  second  childhood  of  old  age, 
when  the  power  of  reflection  is  weakened,  and  there 
is  a  reversion  to  the  primitive  animal  condition.  The 

*  See  Wuttke,  Deutscher  Volksdberglauler ;  Tylor,  Primitive 
Culture ;  Hanusch,  Kochholz,  aiid  others. 


HUMAN   SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  73 

same   phenomenon   also  occurs   in  idiots,  in  whom 
there  is  a  morbid  defect  of  reflective  power. 

This  fact  of  the  personification  of  the  objects  of 
perception  is  therefore  evident  and  constant  in  the 
primitive  man  of  civilized  races,  in  the  barbarous 
condition  of  modern  savages,  in  the  ignorant  mul- 
titude, and  in  children — intellectual  conditions  which 
approach  most  closely  to  the  condition  of  animals 
— and  conversely  it  is  plain  that  it  belongs  in  the 
highest  degree  to  the  intellectual  life  of  animals, 
and  that  myth,  into  which  such  a  personification 
and  animation  of  things  must  be  resolved,  has  its 
original  and  innate  necessity  in  animal  life.  We 
think  that  this  is  a  new  scientific  fact,  which  throws 
much  ligKt  on  the  history  of  human  thought. 

M'Lennan  observes,  "  Some  explanation  of  the 
phenomena  of  life  a  man  must  feign  for  himself ;  and 
to  judge  from  the  universality  of  it,  the  simplest 
hypothesis,  and  the  first  to  occur  to  men,  seems  to 
•  have  been  that  natural  phenomena  are  ascribable  to 
the  presence  in  animals,  plants,  and  things,  and  in 
the  forces  of  nature,  of  such  spirits  prompting  to 
action  as  men  are  conscious  they  themselves 
possess."  *  This  fact,  indicated  by  M'Lennan  and 
by  all  who  have  devoted  themselves  to  anthropo- 

*  The  Worship  of  Animals  and  Plants,  Part  I.  Fortnightly  Review, 
1869.  The  same  argument  is  generally  used ;  see  Tylor,  Early  History 
of  Mankind,  1865;  Lubbock,  Origin  of  Civilization,  1870;  Herbert 
Spencer,  Fortnightly  Review,  May,  1870;  Waitz,  Anthropologie  der 
Naturvb'llcer ;  Ba&tian,  Mensch  in  der  Geschichte. 


74  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

logical  researches  with  respect  to  the  origin  of  re- 
ligions, and  of  myth  in  general,  is  now  recognized 
as  certain ;  but  it  seeins  to  me  that  the  interpre- 
tation and  explanation  of  it  are  altogether  im- 
plete.  They  suppose  it  to  be  simply  the  effect 
of  psychological  laws  as  far  as  man  is  concerned, 
whereas  we  have  shown  that  it  forms,  in  the  ultimate 
causes  by  which  it  is  produced,  the  very  essence  of 
animal  perception.  They  ascribe  it  to  man  as  a 
rational  hypothesis  to  explain  the  primitive  order 
of  things,  whereas  it  is  a  spontaneous  and  primary 
intuition  of  the  animal  intelligence. 

Alger,  although  he  is  also  mistaken  as  to  the 
true  causes  of  myth  in  general,  expresses  himself 
better  when  he  asserts  that  the  brain  of  a  savage 
is  always  dominated  by  the  idea  that  all  objects 
whatsoever  have  a  soul  precisely  similar  to  that  of 
man.  The  custom  of  burning  and  burying  various 
things  with  the  dead  body  was,  he  thinks,  in  many 
cases  prompted  by  the  belief  that  every  such  object 
had  its  manes* 

In  fact,  the  innate  psychical  and  organic  con- 
stitution of  the  intelligence,  both  animal  and  human, 
is  such  that  it  spontaneously  and  necessarily  projects 
itself  into  every  object  of  nature  and  perception, 
animating  and  personifying  it  by  this  special  law, 
and  not  by  a  reflective  hypothesis,  such  as  would  be 
the  conscious  and  deliberate  solution  of  a  given  pro- 

*  See  Alger's  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  75 

blem.  Such  a  solution  cannot  be  made  by  animals, 
since  as  we  have  shown  they  are  without  the  faculty 
of  making  a  deliberate  research  into  any  subject ;  nor 
can  it  be  effected  by  the  primitive  man,  in  whom  the 
reasoning  faculty  with  which  he  is  endowed  is  still 
undeveloped. 

The  real  origin  of  reflection  is  not  to  be  found  in 
what  may  be  called  the  mythical  creation  of  nature, 
which  is  the  necessary  result  of  the  spontaneity  of 
the  intelligence,  both  in  man  and  animals;  it  is 
developed  after  long  duration  of  barbarism  and  igno- 
rance. M'Lennan  and  others  have  shown  how 
the  era  of  reflection  and  hypothesis  begins  in  the 
evolution  of  human  intelligence.  Sekesa,  an  intelli- 
gent Kaffir,  said  to  Arbrousset,  *  "For  twelve  years 
I  have  shepherded  my  flock.  It  was  dark,  and  I 
sat  down  upon  a  rock  and  asked  myself  such  ques- 
tions as  these,  sad  questions,  since  I  was  unable 
to  answer  them.  Who  made  the  stars  ?  What 
supports  them?  Do  the  waters  never  grow  weary 
of  flowing  from  morning  to  evening,  from  evening  to 
morning,  and  where  do  they  find  rest?  Whence 
come  the  clouds,  which  pass  and  re-pass,  and  dis- 
solve in  rain  ?  Who  sends  them  ?  Our  diviners 
certainly  do  not  send  rain,  since  they  have  no  means 
of  making  it,  nor  do  I  see  them  with  my  eyes  going 
up  to  heaven  to  seek  it.  I  cannot  see  the  wind,  and 
know  not  what  it  is.  Who  guides  and  causes  it  to 

*  Arbrousset,  The  Basutos. 


76  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

blow,  to  rage,  and  overwhelm  us  ?  Nor  do  I  know 
how  the  corn  grows.  Yesterday  there  was  not  a 
blade  of  grass  in  my  field,  and  to-day  it  is  green ; 
who  gave  to  the  earth  the  wisdom  and  power  to  bring 
forth  ?  "  Again,  there  is  a  passage  in  the  Eig-Veda, 
in  which  it  is  said,  "  Where  do  the  fixed  stars  of 
heaven  which  we  see  by  night  go  by  day  ?  " 

It  is  in  this  intellectual  condition  that  ignorant 
and  savage  man  really  begins  the  spontaneous  yet  re- 
flective research  into  the  causes  of  things,  and  it  is  in 
this  condition  only  that  he  hypothetically  interprets 
the  order  of  phenomena  through  myths,  which  have 
then  become  secondary,  and  are  no  longer  primitive. 
The  true  origin  of  the  primitive  myth  which  animates 
and  personifies  the  universe  is  not  to  be  found  in 
this  condition ;  its  origin  is  of  much  earlier  date  in 
the  history  of  man,  and  indeed  it  has  its  roots,  as  we 
have  shown,  in  animal  life. 

Certainly  when  we  compare  the  two  intellectual 
periods,  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  age  in 
which  Sekesa  could  be  perplexed  by  such  inquiries, 
and  that  of  more  primitive  peoples,  which  still  believe 
without  question  in  the  soul  and  informing  spirit  or 
shade  of  stones,  sticks,  weapons,  food,  water,  springs — 
in  short,  of  every  object  and  phenomenon.  This  is 
still  the  case  with  the  Algonquins,  the  Fijians,  the 
Karens,  the  Caribbees,  the  negroes  of  Guinea,  the  New 
Zealanders,  the  Tongusians,  the  Greenlanders,  the 
Esthonians,  the  Australians,  the  Peruvians,  and  a 


HUMAN   SENSATION  AND   PERCEPTION.  77 

host  of  other  savage  and  barbarous  peoples.  They 
not  only  animate  and  personify  material  objects,  but 
even  diseases  and  their  remedies. 

The  incubus,  for  example,  termed  Mara  in  Northern 
mythology,  was  the  spirit  which  tormented  sleepers. 
This  is  the  Mar  of  the  German  proverb  :  Dich  hat 
greitten  der  Mar.  The  word  is  derived  from  Mar,  a 
horse,  and  becomes  nightmare  in  English,  Cauchemar 
in  French,  E^taArqe  in  Greek,  meaning  one  which 
rides  upon  another.  So  with  epilepsy,  which  signifies 
the  act  of  being  seized  by  any  one ;  it  was,  like  all 
nervous  diseases,  held  to  be  a  sacred  evil,  and  those 
afflicted  by  it  were  supposed  to  be  possessed.  In- 
sanity was  regarded  in  the  same  way,  as  we  see  in 
the  Bible  where  Saul's  melancholy  is  said  to  be  an 
evil  spirit  sent  from  God.  A  furious  madman  was 
supposed  to  have  been  carried  off  by  a  demon,  and 
in  Persia  the  insane  were  said  to  be  God's  fools. 
In  Tahiti  they  were  called  Eatooa,  that  is,  possessed 
by  a  divine  spirit;  and  in  the  Sandwich  Isles  they 
were  worshipped  as  men  into  whom  a  divinity  had 
entered.  In  German  the  plica  polonica  is  called 
Alpzopf,  or  hobgoblin's  tail.  All  nations  believed 
that  the  malign  beings  which  animated  diseases 
could,  like  men,  be  propitiated  by  ceremonies  and 
incantations.  The  Eedskins  are  always  in  fear  of 
the  assaults  of  evil  spirits,  and  have  recourse  to  in- 
cantations, and  to  the  most  absurd  sacerdotal  rites, 
or  to  the  influence  of  their  manitu,  in  order  to  be 


78  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

safe.      Their  devotions  and  sacrifices  are  prompted 
by  fear  rather  than  by  gratitude. 

Tanner  mentions,  in  his  "  Narrative  of  a  Captivity 
among  the  Indians,"  that  he  once  heard  a  con- 
valescent patient  reproved  for  his  imprudence  in 
exposing  himself  to  the  air,  since  his  shade  had  not 
altogether  come  back  to  abide  within  him.  For  this 
purpose,  and  in  conformity  with  such  ideas,  when  the 
sorcerer  Malgaco  wishes  to  cure  a  sick  man,  he  makes 
a  hole  in  a  tomb  to  let  out  the  spirit,  which  he  then 
takes  in  his  cap,  and  constrains  it  to  enter  the 
patient's  head.  The  process  of  disease  is  supposed 
to  be  a  struggle  between  the  sick  person  and  the  evil 
spirit  of  sickness.  The  Greek  word  prophylake  signifies 
the  arrangements  of  outposts.  Agonia  is  the  hottest 

— — -••- 

moment  of  conflict,  and  krisis  the  decisive  day  of 
battle,  as  we  see  in  Polybius,  liii.,  c.  89.  Medicine 
was  from  the  earliest  times  confounded  with  magic, 
which  is  only  the  primitive  form  of  the  conception  of 
nature.  The  Aryan  rulers  in  India  in  ancient  times 
believed  that  the  savage  races  were  autochthonic 
workers  of  magic  who  were  able  to  assume  any  form 
they  pleased.*  The  negro  priests  of  fetish  worship 
believe  that  they  can  pronounce  on  the  disease  with- 
out seeing  the  patient,  by  the  aid  of  his  garments 
or  of  anything  which  belongs  to  him.f  The  super- 
stition of  the  evil  eye  recurs  in  Vedic  India,  as  well 

*  Muir,  Sanscrit  Texts. 

f  Burton,   West  Africa ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.     79 

as  among  many  other  peoples.  In  the  Big- Veda  the 
wife  is  exhorted  not  to  look  upon  her  hushand  with 
an  evil  eye.  There  was  the  same  belief  among  the 
ancient  Greeks,  and  it  is  also  found  in  the  oculus 
fascinus  of  the  Romans,  and  the  German. loses  Auge.  - 
The  early  German  Eito,  or  fever,  was  a  spirit  (Alb) 
which  rode  upon  the  sick  man.  A  passage  in  the  Rig- 
Veda  states  that  demons  assume  the  form  of  an  owl, 
cock,  wolf,  etc.*  Such  was  the  primitive  attitude  of 
the  transfusion  of  individual  psychical  life  into  things, 
and  consequently  of  general  metamorphosis.  Kuhn 
identifies  the  Greek  verb  lao/uat  with  the  Sanscrit 
yavayami,  to  avert,  and  in  the  Rig- Veda  this  verb  is 
used  in  connection  with  amivd,  disease;  so  that  it 
was  necessary  to  drive  away  the  demon,  as  the  cause 
of  sickness.  A  physician,  according  to  the  meaning 
of  the  old  Sanscrit  word,  was  the  exerciser  of  disease, 
the  man  who  fought  with  its  demon.  We  find  the 
practice  of  incantations  as  a  remedy  for  disease  in 
use  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  all 
European  nations,  as  well  as  among  savages  in  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

The  objects  and  phenomena  obvious  to  percep- 
tion are  therefore  supposed  by  primitive  man,  as 
well  as  by  animals,  to  be  conscious  subjects  in  virtue 
of  their  constitution,  and  of  the  innate  character  of 
sensation  and  intelligence.  So  that  the  universal 
personification  of  the  things  and  phenomena  of 

*  Pictet,  Origines  Indo-Europe'ennes. 


80  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

nature,  either  vaguely,  or  in  an  animal  form,  is  a 
fundamental  and  necessary  fact,  both  in  animals  and 
in  man ;  it  is  a  spontaneous  effect  of  the  psychical 
faculty  in  its  relations  to  the  world.  We  think 
that  this  truth  cannot  be  controverted,  and  it  will 
be  still  more  clearly  proved  in  the  course  of  this 
work. 

Such  a  fact,  considered  in  its  first  manifestation 
and  in  the  laws  which  originally  govern  it  in  animals, 
and  in  man  as  far  as  his  animal  nature  is  concerned, 
assumes  a  fresh  aspect,  and  is  of  two-fold  force  when 
it  is  studied  in  man  after  he  has  begun  to  reason, 
that  is,  when  his  original  psychical  faculty  is  doubled. 
The  animation  and  personification  of  objects  and 
phenomena  by  animals  are  always  relative  to  those  of 
the  external  world ;  that  is,  animals  transfuse  and 
project  themselves  into  every  form  which  really  excites, 
affects,  alarms,  allures,  or  threatens  them;  and  the 
spontaneous  psychical  faculty  which  such  a  vivifying 
process  always  produces  necessarily  remains  within  the 
sphere  of  their  external  perceptions  and  apprehensions. 
In  a  word,  they  live  in  the  midst  of  the  objective 
nature,  which  they  animate  with  consciousness  and 
will,  and  their  internal  power  is  altogether  absorbed 
in  this  external  transformation. 

In  man,  in  addition  to  this  animation  of  the  things 
and  phenomena  of  the  external  world,  another  more 
profound  and  vivid  animation  takes  place,  the  anima- 
tion not  merely  of  external  forms,  but  of  internal 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEECEPTION.  81 

perceptions,  ideas,  sentiments,  and  all  kinds  of 
emotions.  We  know  that  man  has  not  only  the 
perception  of  external  and  internal  things,  but  also 
the  perception  of  this  perception.  Hence  the  external 
form,  or  the  internal  sentiment  and  emotion,  may  by 
the  dominion  of  his  will  over  all  the  attributes  of  his 
intelligence  be  once  more  subjected  to  his  deliberate 
observation  and  intuition;  by  this  process  the  external 
and  internal  world  are  doubled  in  their  intrinsic  ideal, 
and  give  birth  to  analysis  and  abstraction,  that  is,  to 
the  specification  and  generalization  of  the  things 
observed. 

When  this  spontaneous  faculty  of  man  has  been 
developed  within  him,  his  observation  of  the  similari- 
ties, analogies,  differences,  and  identities  which  are  to 
be  found  in  all  things  and  phenomena,  in  sentiments 
and  emotions,  necessarily  induces  him  to  collect  and 
simplify  them  in  special  forms,  to  combine  these 
various  intuitions  in  a  homologous  type ;  this  type 
corresponds  with  an  external  or  internal  congeries  of 
similar,  identical,  or  analogous  images  or  ideas,  out  of 
which  the  species  and  genera  of  the  intellect  are 
formed.  In  this  way,  for  instance,  arose  the  mental 
classification  of  trees,  plants,  flowers,  rivers,  springs, 
animals,  and  the  like,  as  well  as  that  of  love,  hatred, 
sorrow,  anger,  birth,  and  death,  strength,  weakness, 
rule,  and  obedience ;  in  short,  the  generic  conceptions 
of  all  natural  phenomena,  as  well  as  of  psychical 
sentiments  and  emotions. 


82  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Animals,  for  example,  perceive  a  given  plant  or 
tree,  as  a  thing  presented  at  the  moment  to  their 
individual  consciousness,  and  by  infusing  this  con- 
sciousness into  the  object  in  question,  they  animate 
and  personify  it,  especially  if  its  fruits  or  leaves  are 
attractive,  or  if  it  is  moved  by  the  wind.  We  have  seen 
that  all  things  are  necessarily  personified  by  animals, 
for  if  they  meet  with  any  material  obstacle,  they  do 
not  ascribe  the  sudden  impediment  to  the  impenetra- 
bility of  matter,  or  to  superior  force,  but  rather  to  an 
intentional  opposition  to  their  aim  or  progress.  We 
often  see  that  animals  not  only  exert  mechanical 
force  to  break  through  or  destroy  the  material  barriers 
intended  to  keep  them  in  confinement,  but  they  act  in 
such  a  way  as  to  show  rage  and  fury  tow*:  rds  a  hostile 
and  malevolent  subject. 

To  return  to  our  example ;  if  an  animal  vivifies 
and  animates  some  special  plant  specially  presented 
to  him,  he  does  not  go  beyond  this  vivifying  act ; 
when  he  goes  on  his  way,  and  no  longer  perceives  the 
concrete  phenomenon,  the  animation  at  the  same  time 
disappears  and  ceases.  Man,  however,  by  means  of 
the  classifying  faculty  we  have  noticed,  after  repeatedly 
perceiving  various  plants  similar  or  analogous  to  the 
first,  is  able  by  spontaneous  reflection,  and  by  the 
automatic  exercise  of  his  intelligence,  to  refer  them 
to  a  single  type,  and  in  this  way  the  specific  idea  of  a 
tree  is  evolved  in  his  mind  and  fixed  in  his  memory. 
The  same  thing  gradually  takes  place  with  respect  to 


HUMAN   SENSATION   AND   PERCEPTION.  83 

flowers,  animals,  springs,  rivers,  and  the  like.  These 
ideal  types  are  not  wholly  wanting  even  among  the 
most  barbarous  peoples,  in  the  most  concrete  and 
dissimilar  languages,  since  without  them  any  language 
would  be  impossible. 

The  same  intrinsic  and  innate  necessity  which, 
both  in  man  and  animals,  automatically  effects  the 
animation  and  personification  of  consciousness  and 
will  in  the  case  of  external  objects  and  phenomena, 
also  impels  man  to  vivify  and  personify  the  specific 
types  which  he  has  gradually  formed,  and  they  take 
an  objective  place  in  his  memory  as  the  objects  of 
nature  do  in  the  case  of  animals.  In  this  way  man 
does  not,  like  animals,  merely  vivify  the  special  oak 
or  chestnut  tree  presented  to  him  in  a  concrete  form 
at  a  given  moment,  but  he  vivifies  in  the  same  way 
the  psychical  type  of  trees,  of  flowers,  etc.,  which  has 
been  evolved  in  his  mind,  just  as  he  vivifies  the  type 
of  suffering,  of  disease,  of  death,  of  healing,  or  of  any 
other  force. 

For  this  reason  the  process  of  necessary  and 
spontaneous  personification  is  at  first  two-fold;  namely, 
the  personification  of  individual  and  external  objects 
and  phenomena,  and  that  of  their  specific  inward 
types,  whether  of  the  objects  themselves  or  of  their 
sensations  and  emotions.  It  must  be  observed  that  at 
this  early  stage  of  man's  history,  specific  types,  or  the 
classification  of  things,  were  not  ordered  and  deter- 
mined with  scientific  precision ;  they  were  undefined 


84  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  confused,  running  more  or  less  into  each  other,  so 
as  to  be  easily  lost,  or  constantly  diverging  more 
widely.  This  internal  movement  of  images  and  un- 
defined conceptions  was  a  stimulus  to  active  and 
mobile  life,  and  an  abundant  source  of  vivid  or 
obscure  myths,  and  of  the  sentiments  corresponding 
to  them. 

These  specific  primordial  types  were  openly  re- 
ferred to  external  phenomena,  and  were  based  upon 
the  life  of  nature,  since  rational  or  scientific  ideas  had 
not  yet  made  their  appearance,  or  only  very  sparsely. 
In  any  case,  the  reality  of  these  types  and  their 
animation  are  facts,  as  all  the  earliest  records  attest, 
whether  among  civilized  or  savage  races. 

The  personification  of  specific  types,  which  are 
in  general  the  most  obvious — those,  namely,  which 
refer  to  animals,  vegetables,  minerals,  and  meteors, 
things  useful  or  injurious  to  man — is  the  origin  of 
the  subsequent  belief  in  fetishes,  genii,  demons,  and 
spirits,  and  these  led  to  the  vivification  of  the  whole 
of  nature,  her  laws,  customs,  and  forces.  Man's 
personification  of  himself,  his  projection  of  himself 
as  a  living  being  into  external  things,  was  the  result 
of  reflection.  In  fact,  the  impersonation  of  the  winds 
took  place  in  very  early  times,  since  they  most  fre- 
quently and  universally  excited  the  attention  and 
anxiety  of  man  and  animals,  whether  beneficially 
or  otherwise,  and  by  their  mechanical  action,  their 
whistling  and  other  sounds,  they  readily  struck  the 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEECEPTION.  85 

mobile  fancy  of  primitive  men,  and  also  of  savage 
and  ignorant  peoples  in  our  day. 

Just  as  the  act  of  respiration  is  a  faint  wind 
which  goes  on  whether  in  sleep  or  wakefulness,  and 
only  ceases  with  death,  so  it  was  with  the  pheno- 
menon of  nature  which  attracted  their  attention,  and 
it  was  invested  by  them  with  life.  Since  the  winds 
of  nature  had  already  been  animated  and  personified 
by  a  spontaneous  act,  so  our  inmost  being  was  cer- 
tainly first  considered  as  material,  and  impersonated 
as  breath  and  air. 

This  appears  from  the  roots  and  words  of  all 
languages  ;  the  Hebrew  nephesh,  nshdmdh,  ruach — soul 
or  spirit — are  all  derived  from  the  idea  of  breathing. 
The  Greek  word  a've^oe,  the  Latin  word  animus, 
signify  breathing,  wind,  soul,  and  spirit.  .  In  the 
Sanscrit  dtman  we  have  the  successive  meanings 
which  show  the  evolution  of  the  myth :  breathing, 
vital  soul,  intelligence,  and  then  the  individual,  the 
ego.  In  Polynesia  we  find  the  same  process  of  things. 
To  think,  which  in  the  Aryan  tongues  comes  from 
the  root  c'i,  and  originally  meant  to  collect,  to  com- 
prehend, in  German,  begreifen,  becomes  in  the  Poly- 
nesian language,  to  talk  in  the  belly.  It  is,  there- 
fore, an  evident  historical  fact  that  man  first  per- 
sonified natural  phenomena,  and  then  made  use  of 
these  personifications  to  personify  his  inward  acts, 
his  psychical  ideas  and  conceptions.  This  was  the 
necessary  process,  since  animals  were  prior  to  man, 


86  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

temporally  and  logically,  and  external  idols  were 
formed  before  those  which  were  internal  and  peculiar 
to  himself.* 

It  is  true  that  man  unconsciously,  that  is,  without 
deliberation,  not  only  animates  external  things  and 
their  specific  types,  but  he  also,  by  an  exercise  of 
memory,  animates  the  psychical  image  of  these 
special  perceptions.  If,  for  example,  the  primitive 
man  personifies  a  stream  of  water  which  he  has  seen 
to  issue  from  a  fissure  of  the  rocks,  and  ascribes  to 
\  it  voluntary  and  intentional  motion,  he  also  animates 
the  image  which  reappears  in  his  sphere  of  thought, 

*  The  Hawa'ians,  for  example,  have  only  one  term  for  love,  friend- 
ship, esteem,  gratitude,  benevolence,  etc.  —  aloha;  while  they  have 
distinct  words  for  different  degrees  in  :i  single  natural  phenomenon. 
Thus  aneane,  gentle  breeze ;  matani,  wind ;  pahi,  the  act  of  breathing 
through  the  mouth ;  hano,  breathing  through  the  nose.  See  Hale's 
Polynesian  Dictionary.  All  peoples  have  slowly  attained  to  typical 
ideas,  and  many  are  even  now  in  process  of  formation.  Thus,  the  Finns, 
Lapps,  Tartars,  and  Mongols,  have  no  generic  words  for  river,  although 
even  the  smallest  streams  have  their  names.  They  have  not  a  word  to 
express  fingers  in  general,  but  special  words  for  thumb,  fore-finger,  etc. 
They  have  no  word  for  tree,  but  special  words  for  pine,  birch,  ash,  etc. 
In  the  Finn  language,  the  word  first  used  for  thumb  was  afterwards 
applied  to  fingers  generally,  and  the  special  word  for  the  bay  in  which 
they  lived  came  to  be  used  for  all  bays.  See  Castren,  Vorlesungen 
iiber  Finnische  Mythologie.  This  original  confusion  in  the  definition 
of  scientific  ideas,  and  the  successive  alternations  by  which  they  were 
re-cast,  may  be  gathered  from  the  analysis  of  language,  and  from  facts 
which  still  occur  among  uncultured  and  ignorant  people.  When  the 
inhabitants  of  Mallcolo  saw  dogs  for  the  first  time,  they  called  them 
&rooas,or  pigs.  The  inhabitants  of  Tauna  also  call  the  dogs  imported 
thither  buga,  or  pigs.  When  the  inhabitants, of  a  small  island  in  the 
Mediterranean  saw  oxen  for  the  first  time,  they  called  them  horned 
asses. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  87 

and  conceives  it  to  have  a  real  existence.  He  does 
not  merely  believe  it  to  be  a  psychical  and  what  may 
be  called  a  photographic  repetition  of  the  thing,  but 
rather  to  have  an  actual,  concrete  existence.  Thus, 
among  all  ancient  peoples,  and  among  many  which 
are  still  in  the  condition  of  savages,  the  shadow  of  a 
man's  body  is  held  to  be  substantial  with  it,  and, 
as  it  were,  his  inmost  essence,  and  for  this  reason 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  were  in  several  languages 
called  shades. 

Doubtless  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  picture  to  our- 
selves the  psychical  conditions  of  primitive  men,  at  a 
time  when  the  objects  of  perception  and  the  appre- 
hension of  things  were  presented  by  an  effort  of 
memory  to  the  mind  as  if  they  were  actual  and  living 
things,  yet  such  conditions  are  not  hypothetical  but 
really  existed,  as  any  one  may  ascertain  for  himself 
who  is  able  to  realize  that  primitive  state  of  the  mind, 
and  we  have  said  enough  to  show  that  such  was  its 
necessary  condition. 

The  fact  becomes  more  intelligible  when  we  con- 
sider man,  and  especially  the  uneducated  man,  under 
the  exciting  influence  of  any  passion,  and  how  at 
such  times  he  will,  even  when  alone,  gesticulate, 
speak  aloud,  and  reply  to  internal  questions  which 
he  imagines  to  be  put  to  him  by  absent  persons, 
against  whom  he  is  at  the  moment  infuriated.  The 
images  of  these  persons  and  things  are  as  it  were 
present  and  in  agitation  within  him ;  and  these 


88  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

images,  in  the  fervour  of  emotion  and  under  the 
stimulus  of  excitement,  appear  to  be  actually  alive, 
although  only  presented  to  the  inward  psychical 
consciousness. 

In  the  natural  man,  in  whom  the  intellectual 
powers  were  very  slowly  developed,  the  animation 
and  personification  effected  by  his  mind  and  con- 
sciousness were  threefold :  first,  of  the  objects  them- 
selves as  they  really  existed,  then  of  the  idea  or  image 
corresponding  to  them  in  the  memory,  and  lastly  of 
the  specific  types  of  these  objects  and  images.  There 
was  within  him  a  vast  and  continuous  drama,  of 
which  we  are  no  longer  conscious,  or  only  retain  a 
faint  and  distant  echo,  but  which  is  partly  revealed 
by  a  consideration  of  the  primitive  value  of  words 
and  of  their  roots  in  all  languages.  The  meaning  of 
these,  which  is  now  for  the  most  part  lost  and  un- 
intelligible, always  expressed  a  material  and  concrete 
fact,  or  some  gesture.  This  is  true  of  classic  tongues, 
as  is  well  known  to  all  educated  people,  and  it  recurs 
in  the  speech  of  all  savage  and  barbarous  races. 

la  rau  is  used  to  express  all  in  the  Marquesas 
Isles.  Rau  signifies  leaves,  so  that  the  term  implies 
something  as  numerous  as  the  leaves  of  a  tree.  Rau 
is  also  now  used  for  sound,  an  expression  which  includes 
in  itself  the  conception  of  all,  but  which  originally 
signified  a  fact,  a  real  and  concrete  phenomenon, 
and  it  was  felt  as  such  in  the  ancient  speech  in 
which  it  was  used  in  this  sense.  So  again  in  Tahiti 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  89 

huru,  ten,  originally  signified  hairs ;  rima,  five,  was  at 
first  used  for  hand;  riri,  anger,  literally  means,  he 
shouts.  Uku  in  the  Marquesas  Isles  means,  to  lower 
the  head,  and  is  now  used  for  to  enter  a  house.  Ruku, 
which  had  the  same  original  meaning  in  New  Zealand, 
now  expresses  the  act  of  diving.  The  Polynesian  word 
toro  Sit  first  indicated  anything  in  the  position  of  a 
hand  with  extended  fingers,  whence  comes  the  Tahitian 
term  for  an  ox,  puaatoro,  stretching  pig,  in  allusion  to 
the  way  in  which  an  ox  carries  his  head.  Too  (Mar- 
quesas), to  put  forward  the  hand,  is  now  used  for  to 
take.  Tongo  (Marquesas),  to  grope  with  extended 
arms,  leads  to  potongo  tongo,  darkness.  In  New  Zea- 
land, wairua,  in  Tahiti  varua,  signifies  soul  or  spirit, 
from  vai,  to  remain  in  a  recumbent  position,  and  rua, 
two ;  that  is,  to  be  in  two  places,  since  they  believed 
that  in  sickness  or  in  dreams  the  soul  left  the  body.* 
Throughout  Polynesia  moe  also  signifies  a  recumbent 
position  or  to  sleep,  and  in  Tahiti  moe  pipiti  signifies 
a  double  sleep  or  dream,  from  moe,  to  sleep,  smdipiti, 
two.  In  New  Zealand,  moenaku  means,  to  try  to  grasp 
something  during  sleep ;  from  naku,  to  take  in  the 
fingers. 

We  can  understand  something  of  the  "mysterious 
exercise  of  human  intelligence  in  its  earliest  develop- 
ment from  this  habit  of  symbolizing  and  presenting  in 
an  outward  form  an  abstract  conception,  thus  giving 
a  concrete  meaning  and  material  expression  to  the 

*  See   Gaussin's  Langue  Polyn&ienne. 


90  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

external  fact.  We  see  how  everything  assumed  a 
concrete,  living  form,  and  can  better  understand  the 
conditions  we  have  established  as  necessary  in  the 
early  days  of  the  development  of  human  life.  This 
attitude  of  the  intelligence  has  been  often  stated 
before,  but  in  an  incomplete  way ;  the  primitive  and 
the  subsequent  myths  have  been  confounded  together, 
and  it  has  been  supposed  that  myth  was  of  exclusively 
human  origin,  whereas  it  has  its  roots  lower  down  in 
the  vast  animal  kingdom.  We  hope,  therefore,  that  it 
will  be  granted  that  we  have  given  the  true  and  full 
exposition  of  myth. 

Anthropomorphism,  and  the  personification  of  the 
things  and  phenomena  of  nature,  of  their  images  and 
specific  types,  were  the  great  source  whence  issued 
superstitions,  mythologies,  and  religions,  and  also,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  the  scientific  errors  to  be  found 
among  all  the  families  of  the  human  race. 

For  the  development  of  myth,  which  is  in  itself 
always  a  human  personification  of  natural  objects  and 
phenomena  in  some  form  or  other,  the  first  and 
necessary  foundation  consists,  as  we  have  abundantly 
shown,  in  the  conscious  and  deliberate  vivification  of 
objects  by  the  perception  and  apprehension  of  animals. 
And  since  this  is  a  condition  of  animal  perception,  it 
is  also  the  foundation  of  all  human  life,  and  of  the 
spontaneous  and  innate  exercise  of  the  intelligence. 
In  fact,  man,  by  a  two-fold  process,  raises  above  his 
animal  nature  a  world  of  images,  ideas,  and  concep- 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  91 

tions  from  the  types  he  has  formed  of  various  pheno- 
mena, and  his  attitude  towards  this  internal  world 
does  not  differ  from  his  attitude  towards  that  which 
is  external.  He  personifies  the  images,  ideas,  and 
conceptions  hy  transforming  them  into  living  subjects, 
just  as  he  had  originally  personified  cosmic  objects 
and  phenomena. 

In  myths,  since  they  owe  their  origin  to  the  reflex 
power  which  is  gradually  organized  and  developed, 
man  carries  on  this  faculty  of  personification  which 
had  already  been  exerted  in  him  as  an  animal.  But 
the  object  of  myth  became  twofold  just  as  the  animal 
nature  became  duplex  in  man,  whether  as  a  special 
image  of  special  conception,  or  as  an  intellectual 
definition  of  the  specific  type  already  formed.  The 
myths  are,  therefore,  from  their  very  nature,  either 
special,  that  is,  derived  from  the  psychical  duplica- 
tion of  a  personified  image ;  or  they  are  specific,  and 
are  derived,  as  we  are  about  to  explain,  from  the 
personification  of  a  type. 

The  deliberate  intention  to  be  beneficent  or  malign, 
useful  or  injurious,  which  is  ascribed  to  any  external 
object,  thus  transforming  it  into  an  intelligent 
subject,  is  the  first  and  simplest  stage  of  myth,  and 
the  innate  form  of  its  genesis.  In  this  case,  it  is 
always  special,  extrinsic,  and  concrete,  and  belongs 
implicitly  to  the  animal  kingdom,  although  more  or 
less  vividly  in  proportion  to  the  mental  and  physical 
evolution  of  the  species.  It  is  for  the  same  reason 


92  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE 

also  proper  to  man,  in  whose  case  it  first  appears  in 
the  indefinite  multiplication  of  fetishes,  whatever  may 
be  the  object  venerated,  and  whatever  the  form,  aspect, 
and  character  ascribed  to  it.  This  constitutes  the 
primordial  impulses,  both  of  religious  consciousness 
and  of  the  spontaneous  solution  of  the  problems  of 
the  world  among  all  peoples. 

While  the  animation  of  special  objects  by  animals 
generates  actual  myths,  yet  it  only  occurs  in  the  acts 
of  momentary  and  transient  perception;  they  are 
born  and  die,  they  arise  and  are  dissolved  in  the  very 
act  of  production,  and  they  neither  have  nor  can  have 
retrospective  or  future  influence  on  the  animal.  The 
world,  its  laws  and  phenomena,  form  for  him  one 
universal  and  persistent  myth,  so  far  as  he  feels  him- 
self constrained  to  vivify  and  transform  them  into 
subjects  actuated  by  will.  This  consequently  is  the 
constant  and  normal  condition  of  his  conscious  life 
with  relation  to  things,  and  it  leads  to  nothing  further ; 
his  mental  attitude  with  respect  to  myth  does  not  vary 
from  his  physical  attitude  towards  the  atmosphere,  the 
food  and  water  which  nourish  and  sustain  him,  and  the 
exercise  of  his  functions  are  in  conformity  with  it,  as 
though  it  were  his  natural  and  necessary  element. 

Man,  on  the  contrary,  since  he  has  acquired  the 
power  of  reflection,  which  enables  him  to  reconsider 
past  intuitions  by  an  effort  of  memory,  as  well  as  the 
psychical  image  which  corresponds  to  them,  is  not 
content  with  this  normal  and  fugitive  effect  of  appre- 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  93 

hending  the  personified  object  presented  to  him. 
The  psychical  image  of  his  actual  perception,  which 
he  has  ascertained  from  experience  to  be  beneficent 
or  malignant,  or  which  has  been  interpreted  as  such 
by  his  fancy,  recurs  to  the  mind  even  when  it  is 
absent  and  remote,  and  it  recurs  in  the  vivid  and 
personified  form  in  which  it  was  first  perceived. 

Hence  come  the  following  psychical  facts.  On 
the  one  side  the  actual  object  which  he  has  assumed 
to  be  invested  with  the  faculty  of  will  still  remains 
to  exert  the  same  external  influence ;  on  the  other, 
its  personified  image  is  also  present  to  his  mind, 
so  that  he  can  regard  it  with  the  vivid  quickness  of 
the  fancy,  and  invest  it,  by  its  manifold  relations  to 
other  and  various  phenomena,  with  efficacy,  force,  and 
mysterious  purposes.  It  follows  from  this  inward 
action  and  emotion  that  while  in  the  case  of  animals 
the  beneficent  or  malignant  object  is  only  invested 
with  life  at  the  moment  of  perception,  and  has  no 
more  efficacy  after  its  disappearance,  man  on  the 
contrary  retains  the  same  personified  object  in  his 
memory,  and  recalls  it  at  pleasure,  so  that  its  special 
efficacy  persists,  and  it  continues  to  be  the  object  of 
hopes  and  fears  either  in  the  past  or  in  the  future. 
In  a  word,  the  natural  myth  of  animals  is  trans- 
formed by  man  into  a  fetish,  whether  this  object  or  its 
corresponding  image  in  his  mind  be  superstitiously 
regarded  as  good  or  evil,  pleasing  or  terrible. 

This  was  the  source  of  primitive,  confused,  and 


94  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.      . 

inorganic  fetishism  among  all  peoples  ;  namely,  that 
they  ascribed  intentional  and  conscious  life  to  a  host 
of  natural  objects  and  phenomena.  Hence  came  the 
fears,  the  adoration,  the  guardianship  of,  or  abhor- 
rence for  some  given  species  of  stones,  plants,  animals, 
some  strange  forms  or  unusual  natural  object.  The 
subsequent  adoration  of  idols  and  images,  all  sorts 
of  talismans,  the  virtue  of  relics,  dreams,  incantations, 
and  exorcisms,  had  the  same  origin  and  were  all  due 
to  this  primitive  genesis  of  the  fetish,  the  internal 
duplication  of  the  external  animation  and  personifica- 
tion of  objects. 

It  is  evident  that  fetishism  in  its  earliest  and 
most  primitive  form  was  always  inspired  by  special 
objects,  since  the  external  perception  of  animals  and 
of  man  is  special  and  concrete.  But  we  have  seen 
how  our  intelligence,  by  a  spontaneous  and  innate 
process,  was  led  to  form  types  from  the  immense 
variety  of  special  things  and  phenomena,  and  these 
types  are  the  specific  forms  of  such  things  as  are 
alike,  analogous,  or  identical.  We  have  also  seen  that 
by  the  same  necessity  of  the  psychical  faculty,  which 
is  not  inconsistent  with  the  fundamental  process  of 
animal  intelligence,  man  animates  and  personifies 
these  specific  types,  just  as  he  had  animated  the 
special  perceptions  whence  they  were  generated  in 
his  mind.* 

*  This  process  of  the  evolution  of  primitive  myth  and  of  fetishes, 
will  be  more  elaborately  considered  in  Chapter  VII.,  when  we  come  to 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  95 

The  second  form  of  myth  next  occurs,  if  con- 
sidered as  it  exists  in  man,  but  the  third  form  of 
myth,  if  regarded  in  his  solidarity  with  the  animal 
kingdom.  Instead  of  investing  the  special  fetish  of 
a  given  object  with  superstitious  fear,  he  now  adores 
or  fears  all  objects  of  the  same  species,  or  which,  in 
the  imperfect  classification  of  primitive  times,  he  be- 
lieves to  be  of  the  same  species.  Thus,  to  give  a 
common  example,  if  some  particular  viper  or  other 
form  of  snake  is  the  first  form  of  fetish,  in  the  second 
stage  the  whole  species  of  vipers,  and  of  the  snakes 
which  resemble  them,  is  regarded  with  the  same 
dread.  He  next  supposes  all  the  snakes  which  he 
comes  across  to  emanate  from  a  single  power, 
manifesting  itself  in  this  shape  in  various  times  and 
places.  In  the  same  way,  according  to  the  natural 
evolution  of  this  law,  the  individual,  concrete  plant 
will  no  longer  be  the  fetish  or  object  of  myth,  but  all 
those  of  the  same  species,  or  which  nearly  resemble 
it.  It  will  no  longer  be  a  given  spring,  but  all 
springs,  no  longer  one  particular  grove,  cave,  or 
mountain,  but  all  groves,  caves,  and  mountains ;  in 
a  word,  the  species  will  be  substituted  for  the  indi- 
vidual, the  type  for  the  fact.* 

speak  generally  of  the  historic  evolution  of  science  and  of  myth. 
The  repetition  is  not  superfluous,  since  it  is  necessary  for  the  complete 
understanding  of  my  theory. 

*  For  example,  in  ancient  Roman  mythology  the  Fons  was  first 
adored,  then  Fontus,  the  father  of  all  sources,  and  finally  Janus,  a 
solar  myth,  the  father  of  Fontus.  Janus,  as  the  sun,  was  the  pro- 
ducer of  all  water,  which  rose  by  evaporation  and  fell  again  in  rain. 


96  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

In  this  second  stage  to  which  myth  spontaneously 
attained,  it  must  be  observed  that  all  fetishes  could 
not  be  reduced  to  a  specific  or  typical  image,  since 
in  nature,  and  in  ages  and  conditions  when  the  in- 
telligence was  still  rude  and  uncultured,  all  pheno- 
mena or  objects  could  not  assume  a  specific  form, 
but  were  still  regarded  as  individuals.  In  this  class 
are  the  sun,  the  moon,  certain  stars  and  constella- 
tions, as  well  as  some  other  natural  phenomena, 
volcanoes,  hot  springs,  and  the  like ;  since  these  were 
unique  within  the  range  of  country  inhabited  by  the 
savage  hordes,  they  could  not  become  specific.  Hence, 
while  all  other  objects  and  their  respective  fetishes  fol- 
lowed the  natural  evolution  into  a  specific  type,  and 
through  these  into  the  simplest  form  of  polytheism, 
the  special  fetish  which  referred  to  unique  things  or 
phenomena  remained  special,  although  it  was  modi- 
fied, as  we  shall  see,  so  as  to  harmonize  with  the 
aspect  commonly  assumed  by  other  typical  images. 

It  must  be  observed  that  we  have  gradually  as- 
cended from  the  special  to  the  specific  fetish,  and  to 
types  which  are  resolved  by  the  intelligence  into  more 
ideal  and  less  concrete  images ;  precisely  because 
they  are  ideal  and  less  bound  to  the  form  they  had 
before,  they  are  incarnated  in  an  anthropomorphic 
and  anthropopathic  form.  Keleased  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  regarding  them  in  a  vague  form,  or  one 
different  from  that  of  man,  the  image  becomes  more 
human,  and  that  not  only  as  before  in  consciousness 
and  purpose,  but  also  in  aspect  and  structure. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKCEPTION.  97 

In  fact,  in  this  stage  man  does  not  merely  infuse 
his  spiritual  essence  into  these  types,  but  likewise 
his  corporeal  form,  whence  we  have  the  true,  human 
image  of  myth.  This  may  he  seen  in  the  various 
primitive  Olympuses  of  all  historic  races  as  well  as 
among  savage  peoples,  only  varying  in  the  splendour  of 
their  imagery.  They  consist  in  the  transformation  of 
the  earlier  fetish  into  an  intelligent,  corporeal  person, 
and  result  from  the  formation  and  personification  of 
types. 

Beginning  with  the  mysterious  conception  of  some 
particular  spring  as  a  malignant  or  beneficent  fetish 
which,  although  personified,  still  retains  its  concrete 
form,  the  classifying  action  of  the  intelligence  gradu- 
ally constructs,  from  its  points  of  resemblance  to 
other  springs,  a  generic  type  which  includes  them 
all.  This  typical  conception,  personified  in  its  turn, 
next  represents  a  unique  power,  of  which  all  the 
individual  and  accidental  springs  are  only  manifes- 
tations. Thus  it  is  clear  that  man,  in  the  personifi- 
cation of  this  type  or  specific  conception,  is  no  longer 
bound  to  the  actual  form  of  the  special  object  which 
first  represented  it,  but  he  may  be  said  to  mould 
a  more  indefinite  and  plastic  substance  into  which  he 
can  with  spontaneous  or  facile  art  incarnate  his  whole 
person.  Hence  this  substance  will  assume  an  anthro- 
pomorphic form,  and  will  issue,  not  in  a  mysterious 
being  of  extrinsic  and  indefinite  form,  but  in  a  person 
with  human  features,  obvious  to  human  senses. 


98  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

It  was  thus,  when  the  fetish  attained  to  a  specific 
type,  that  mythical  anthropomorphism  was  generated, 
and  polytheism,  properly  so-called ;  a  polytheism 
which  represents  in  its  figures  and  images  the 
humanization  and  personification  of  specific  types. 
These  afterwards  diverge  into  specifications  which 
vary  with  the  number  of  phenomena  that  are 
united  in  a  single  idea  or  conception.  The  first 
polytheistic  Olympus  consisted  of  natural  types,  and 
at  a  much  later  period  they  became  moral  or 
abstract,  in  accordance  with  the  spontaneous  evolu- 
tion of  the  intelligence  itself. 

It  was  in  fact  in  this  way  that  all  the  specific 
myths  of  the  general  phenomena  of  nature  had  their 
origin,  and  in  our  Aryan  race  we  can,  starting  from 
the  Kig-Veda,  follow  their  splendid  development 
among  Grseco-Latins,  Celts,  Germans,  and  Slavs;  it 
may  also  be  traced  in  the  memory  and  historic  evolu- 
tion of  other  races,  and  with  less  distinctness  among 
those  which  are  barbarous  and  savage.* 

*  The  Sanscrit  word  Vayund,  meaning  light,  was  personified  in 
Aurora,  and  afterwards  signified  the  intelligence,  or  inward  light; 
a  symbolical  evolution  of  myth  towards  a  rational  conception. 
The  worship  of  heaven  and  earth,  united  in  a  common  type,  is  found 
among  all  Aryan  peoples,  and  among  other  races.  The  Germans 
worshipped  Hertha,  the  original  form  of  Erde,  earth.  The  Letts 
worshipped  Mahte,  or  Mahmine,  mother  earth.  So  did  the  Magyars, 
and  the  Ostiaks  adored  the  earth  under  the  Slavonic  name  of  India. 
In  China  sacrifices  to  the  divine  earth  Heou-tou  and  to  the  heaven 
Tien  were  fundamental  rites.  In  North  America  the  Shawnees  in- 
voked earth  as  their  great  ancestress.  The  Comanchi  adored  her  as 
their  common  mother.  In  New  Zealand  heaven  and  earth  are  worshipped 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.  99 

To  take   some  example  which  may  throw  light 
upon  our  theory  of  the   evolution  of  myth,  let  us 

as  Eangi  and  Papi,  (Grey  :  Polynesian  Mythology.')  The  myth  of 
Apollo,  light,  sun,  heat,  combined  also  with  serpent  worship,  is  found 
modified  in  a  thousand  ways  among  all  peoples,  savages  included. 
See  Schwartz,  Urspung  der  Mythologie  ;  J.  Fergusson,  Tree  and 
Serpent  Worship;  Herbert  Spencer,  The  Origin  of  Animal  Worship; 
Maury,  Eeligions  de  la  Grece  Antique.  They  also  appeared  among 
the  Hebrew  and  kindred  races.  We  find  in  the  book  of  Job  that 
God  "  by  His  spirit  had  garnished  the  heavens ;  His  hand  has 
formed  the  crooked  serpent "  (Job  xxvi.  13),  expressions  which  are 
almost  Vedic.  From  celestial  phenomena  the  myth  of  the  Apollo 
Serpent  descended  to  impersonate  the  phenomena  of  earth,  of  which 
we  have  examples  in  the  Greek  fable  of  the  Python,  and  others. 
Apollo  again  appears  as  the  god  which  agitates  and  dissolves  the 
waters,  and  the  serpent  as  the  winding  course  of  a  river,  and  also 
as  other  sources  of  water.  The  sun  causes  the  river  water  to 
evaporate,  which  is  symbolized  by  the  dragon's  conflict  with  Apollo, 
and  the  victory  of  the  latter.  The  monster,  as  Forchhammer  observes, 
is  formed  during  the  childhood  of  Apollo,  that  is,  at  a  time  of  year 
when  the  sun  has  not  attained  his  full  force.  When  the  serpent's  body 
begins  to  putrefy,  the  reptile,  in  mythical  language,  takes  the  new  name 
of  Python,  or  he  who  becomes  putrid.  The  serpent  Python,  in 
accordance  with  the  continual  transformations  of  myth,  becomes  the 
Hydra  of  Lerna,  and  Hercules,  another  solar  myth,  is  substituted  for 
Apollo.  This  Hydra  is  transformed  again  into  Typhon,  a  fresh  per- 
sonification of  the  forces  of  nature  and  of  the  atmosphere,  conspiring 
against  heaven.  The  seven-headed  Hydra  reappears  in  another  form 
in  the  Rig- Veda,  where  the  rain  cloud  is  compared  to  the  serpent  whose 
head  rests  on  seven  springs.  I  have  Max  Miiller's  authority  for  the 
vigorous  alternation  of  myths  in  those  primitive  ages,  their  extreme 
mobility,  their  resolution  into  vivified  physical  forms,  and  the  slight 
consistency  of  specific  types.  Aurora  and  "Night  are  often  substituted 
for  each  other,  and  although  in  the  original  conception  of  the 
birth  of  Apollo  and  Artemis  they  were  certainly  both  considered 
to  be  children  of  the  night,  Leto  and  Latona,  yet  even  so  the  place 
or  island  where,  according  to  the  fable,  they  were  born  is  Ortygia  or 
Delos,  or  sometimes  called  by  both  names  at  once.  Delos  means  the 
land  of  light,  but  Ortygia,  although  the  name  is  given  to  different 
places,  is  Aurora,  or  the  land  of  Aurora.  (Gerhard,  Griechische 


100  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

consider  that  of  Holda  in  the  German  Pantheon, 
since  it  is  a  generic  type  of  the  special  primitive 
fetishes  of  sources,  already  in  process  of  formation 
before  the  dispersion  of  the  Aryan  tribes.  Mannhardt 
(Deutsche  Myihologie)  has  shown  what  was  the  primi- 
tive form  of  the  conception  of  Holda  and  of  the 
Nornas,  that  is,  of  the  phenomenal  appearances  of 
water ;  Holda,  the  lady  of  waters,  first  watched  over 
the  heavenly  sources,  and  then,  by  a  subsequent 
interweaving  of  myths  and  duplication  of  images,  she 
kept  and  guarded  the  souls  of  new-born  infants. 
This  early  conception  by  progressive  specification 
gave  birth  to  those  of  the  Nornas,  of  Valkuria,  Undine, 
and  others.  The  primitive  fetish,  or  fetishes  of 
waters  out  of  which  the  specific  type,  afterwards 
personified,  was  evolved  and  formed,  were  at  first  so 

Mythologie.)  Ortygia  is  derived  from  Ortyx,  a  quail.  In  Sanscrit 
the  quail  is  called  Vartikd,  the  bird  which  returns,  because  it  is  one  of 
the  birds  to  return  in  spring.  This  name  Vartikd  is  given  in  the  Veda 
to  one  of  the  numerous  beings  which  are  set  free  and  brought  to  life  by 
the  Asvini,  that  is,  by  day  and  night,  and  Vartikd  is  one  of  several 
names  for  the  dawn.  VartiM' s  story  is  very  short :  she  was  swallowed, 
but  delivered  by  the  Asvini.  She  was  drawn  by  them  from  the  wolf's 
throat.  Hence  we  have  Ortygia,  the  land  of  quails,  the  east ;  the  islo 
which  issued  miraculously  from  the  floods,  where  Leto  begot  his  solar 
twins ;  and  also  Ortygia,  a  name  given  to  Artemis,  the  daughter  of 
Leto,  because  she  was  born  in  the  east.  The  Druh,  crimes  and 
darkness,  may  in  their  subsequent  development  be  contrasted  with 
these  brilliant  myths.  Aurora  is  represented  by  them  as  driving  away 
the  odious  gloom  of  the  Druh.  The  powers  of  darkness,  the  Druh  and 
Rakshas  were  called  Adeva,  arid  the  shining  gods  were  called  Adruh. 
Kuhn  believes  that  the  German  words  trugen  and  liigen  are  derived 
from  Druh. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PEKGEPTION.         101 

bound  to  the  concrete  form  of  the  phenomenon,  that 
although  animated,  it  could  not  assume  a  human 
aspect  and  form.  But  when  the  specific  type  which 
ideally  represented  the  power  manifested  in  all  the 
various  modes  of  special  phenomena  was  evolved, 
then  man  was  released  from  the  concrete  and  in- 
dividual forms  of  the  fetish,  and  readily  moulded  it  in 
his  own  corporeal  as  well  as  in  his  moral  image.  So 
Holda,  changed  from  a  heavenly  to  an  earthly  deity, 
was  transformed  into  the  goddess  of  wells  and  lakes, 
and  assumed  a  perfectly  human  and  even  artistic 
form.  She  loved  to  bathe  at  noon-day,  and  was  often 
seen  to  issue  from  the  water  and  then  plunge  anew  into 
the  waves,  appearing  as  a  very  fair  and  lovely  woman. 

Again,  we  know  that  in  the  gradual  mythical 
evolution  which  found  its  climax  in  Apollo,  the 
animation  of  this  type,  so  fruitful  in  special  instances, 
extended  even  to  the  form  of  his  arms,  his  bow  and 
arrows,  and  to  the  place  of  his  habitation  at  Delphos. 
He  was  armed,  according  to  Schwartz,  with  the  rain- 
bow and  with  thunderbolts,  and  Delphos  was  esteemed 
to  be  the  centre  and  navel  of  the  world. 

These  mythical  ideas  have  their  special  repro- 
duction in  the  mythology  of  the  Finns.  (Castren.) 
The  god  Ukko  with  his  great  bow  of  fire -sends  forth 
trees  as  darts  against  his  enemies  ;  while  fighting, 
he  stands  erect  upon  a  cloud,  called  the  umbilicus 
of  heaven.  Thus  we  see  that  the  process  of  myth  is 
similar,  even  in  different  races. 


102  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

By  the  primitive  personification  of  the  special 
fetishes  whence  he  was  evolved,  the  Indra  of  Vedic 
India  is  shepherd  of  the  herd  of  heavenly  kine.  Vritra, 
a  three-headed  monster  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  steals 
away  the  herd  and  hides  it  in  his  cave.  Indra 
pursues  the  robber,  enters  the  cave  with  fury, 
overwhelms  the  monster  with  his  thunderbolt,  and 
leads  back  the  kine  to  heaven,  their  milk  sprinkling 
the  earth.  This  myth  gradually  assumed  in  the 
Vedic  hymns  more  splendid  and  artistic  forms,  and 
more  amazing  personifications.  The  original  motive 
of  the  myth,  as  it  has  been  interpreted  even  by  Indian 
commentators,  was  the  storm  with  all  its  alternations 
which  bursts  forth  with  more  terrific  violence  in 
hot  climates.  The  luminous  clouds  which  bring  rain 
are  the  purple  kine  whom  a  black  demon  tries  to  steal  ; 
the  fruitfulness  of  the  earth  depends  on  the  issue  of 
the  contest,  and  the  thunderbolt  disperses  the  cloud, 
which  falls  on  the  earth  in  rain,  while  Indra,  that  is, 
the  blue  sky,  appears  in  his  splendour.* 

It  may  be  clearly  seen  from  these  examples  how 
the  specific  myth  was  gradually  developed.  We  have 
said  that  in  addition  to  the  myth  which  referred  to 
types  constructed  from  special  and  manifold  sugges- 
tions, alike  or  analogous  in  extrinsic  circumstances, 
others  were  formed  from  definite  natural  objects,  in 
their  relations  to  men  and  to  their  acquaintance  with 
cosmic  facts  in  those  very  early  times.  These,  how- 

*  Michel  Brfeal :  HercuU  et  Cacus. 


HUMAN  SENSATION  AND  PERCEPTION.         103 

ever,  although  definite,  assumed  anthropomorphic 
forms,  like  those  which  were  specific.  The  cause 
of  this  identity  of  construction  is  to  he  found  in  the 
influence  exerted  upon  them  by  the  earlier  myths. 
By  a  necessary  equilibrium  and  spontaneous  sym- 
metry of  mental  creations,  these  were  also  modified 
by  the  gradual  formation  of  contemporary  images. 
In  this  way  the  solar  myths  were  elaborated  and 
developed  among  the  Aryan  peoples  and  other  races; 
their  aspects  became  much  more  anthropomorphic 
and.  anthropopathic  in  proportion  as  the  typical 
myths  assumed  a  human  form. 

The  primitive  myths  of  the  secondary  form  were 
at  first  grouped  round  physical  and  external  pheno- 
mena, because  these  were  originally  the  most  obvious 
to  man.  But  the  specific  moral  types  had  their 
origin  by  reaction,  and  by  a  more  strictly  intellectual 
process,  and  these  were  personified  in  the  same  way, 
although  in  this  second  stage  they  were  not  so 
numerous.  Yet  their  appearance  and  creation  were 
inevitable,  since  the  same  faculty  and  classifying 
process  had  to  be  carried  out  in  the  intellectual  and 
moral  order  as  in  that  which  was  extrinsic  and  cosmic; 
since  the  mind  and  consciousness  and  intrinsic  faculty 
of  the  intelligence  are  identical.  And  when  once 
these  ultimate  types  were  formed,  the  same  neces- 
sity impelled  their  animation  and  personification  in 
anthropomorphic  images.  Of  this  we  have  abundant 
instances  in  all  the  traditions  of  nearly  all  the  peoples 
of  the  world. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

STATEMENT    OF   THE    PROBLEM. 

(IN  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  considered  and,  as 
we  hope,  demonstrated  the  origin  and  genesis  of  myth 
in  general,  an  origin  and  genesis  which  had  their 
first  impulses  and  causes  in  the  animal  kingdom  as 
a  whole,  since  these  beginnings  were  the  necessary 
result  of  the  psychical  exercise  of  the  perception  and 
intelligence.)  We  next  discovered  in  man,  as  he  issued 
from  a  simply  animal  condition  and  attained  the  power 
of  reflection,  the  origin  of  the  special  myth  or  fetish, 
which  was  a  higher  evolution  of  that  which  is  proper 
to  animals  ;  hence  the  origin  of  the  specific  myth  was 
altogether  anthropomorphic,  whether  physical  or  moral ; 
and  hence  came  also  the  development  and  ramifica- 
tion of  all  mythologies,  and  of  universal  polytheismj) 
It  may  be  seen  from  the  reality  and  truth  of  this 
theory  how  much  mistaken  those  men  are  who  hold, 
owing  to  their  religious  prejudices  or  to  their  systems 
of  logic  and  history,  that  monotheism  was  the  first 
intuition  of  rnan,  or  at  any  rate  of  the  privileged  races. 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PROBLEM.       105 

This  is  altogether  impossible,  since  such  an  opinion 
is  opposed  to  the  genuine  development  of  the  intelli- 
gence, to  its  primitive  constitution  and  progress,  and 
to  the  essential  solidarity  of  human  and  animal 
nature. 

£In  the  case  of  animals  as  well  as  of  man  the 
implicit  act  and  psychical  process  of  communication 
between  the  world  and  themselves  consist  in  the  in- 
dividual and  concrete  animation  of  the  thing  or  phe- 
nomenon perceived ;  whence  they  are  resolved  into 
conscious  subjects,  acting  with  a  given  purpose ;  the 
difference  in  man's  case,  due  to  his  power  of  reflec- 
tion,- consists  in  the  fact  that  he  ascribes  to  the  fetish 
distinct  mental  characteristics,  regarding  it  as  a  sub- 
ject, actuated  by  will,  and  invested  with  an  external 
form.  Hence  it  is  impossible  that  man  should  have 
had  any  primitive  intuition  of  a  perfectly  rational 
and  universal  Idea,  since  his  intelligence  is  so  con- 
stituted that  it  is  slowly  developed  from  the  animal 
condition  into  a  humanity  which  is  mythically  reflex, 
and  he  rises  from  the  single  to  the  specific,  from 
phenomena  to  the  type  which  more  or  less  exactly 
corresponds  to  them. 

We  are  convinced  that  by  these  researches,  we 
have  eradicated  the  previous  misconception,  which 
cannot  be  revived  or  maintained  except  with  the 
weapons  of  sophism,  and  by  defying  evidence  and 
the  very  nature  of  things. 

^While  man  has  risen  from  the  individual  myth  to 


106  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

that  which  is  specific,  infusing  anthropomorphic  life 
into  the  whole  of  nature,  and  into  his  own  sensations, 
emotions,  and  conceptions,  he  has  pursued  an  art 
virtually  the  same  as  that  whence  science  is  generated^ 
The  instrument,  both  with  respect  to  the  formation 
of  myths  and  to  the  formulation  of  science,  is  in  fact 
identical,  and  the  process  also  is  the  same,  (gcience, 
like  myth,  observes,  analyzes,  and  classifies  observa- 
tions, and  gradually  rises  to  a  conception  of  the 
specific  type,  and  hence  to  a  unity  which  becomes 
ever  more  complete  and  universal/^ 

In  the  composition  and  mythical  animation  of  the 
world,  whether  by  special  personifications  or  by  those 
which  are  typical,  and  by  the  sensations  corresponding 
to  them,  man  makes  a  fanciful  classification  of  phe- 
nomena, he  observes  and  studies  their  beneficial  or 
injurious  effects  on  himself,  and  in  this  empirical 
way  is  able  to  estimate  their  value.  (^On  the  other 
hand,  he  rises  in  the  social  scale  by  means  of  his 
superstitious  and  religious  feelings,  which  act  as  a 
stimulus  and  symbol,  so  far  as  he  subjects  his  animal 
and  perverse  instincts  to  the  deliberate  precepts  which 
he  imagines  to  be  expressed  by  these  myths^ 

In  so  far  as  the  empirical  observation  of  things  is 
irrational,  and  obedience  is  paid  to  the  fanciful 
precepts  of  oracles,  it  is  not  the  result  of  an  explicit 
moral  law,  yet  there  is  on  the  one  side  some  know- 
ledge of  the  qualities,  habits,  and  periods  of  things, 
and  on  the  other  a  civil  and  human  order  which  is 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PEOBLEM.       107 

gradually  formed  and  developed.  In  fact,  in  the  case 
of  the  higher  historical  races  it  is  important  to  make 
a  more  explicit  and  accurate  study  of  the  fetish 
religion,  that  is,  of  the  mythical  animation  of  any 
special  phenomenon  or  thing.  Although  the  scope 
of  such  religion  is  superstitious  veneration,  or  abject 
fear,  yet  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  not  induce 
a  more  precise  and  less  confused  notion  of  the  rela- 
tive condition  of  things.  In  this  way  observation 
becomes  more  accurate,  and  the  intrinsic  use  of  the 
thing  is  often  recognized.  By  the  gradual  exercise 
of  such  analysis  in  the  case  of  all  or  most  phenomena, 
man  obtains  a  clearer  knowledge  of  his  environment. 

While  a  juster  estimate  of  the  empiric  value  of 
special  objects  is  obtained  in  this  manner,  the  subse- 
quent, though  sometimes  mistaken  classification  of 
their  specific  types  enables  the  mind  to  arrange  his 
knowledge  of  natural  things  in  a  mor'e  synthetic  and 
orderly  way,  and  by  such  classification  man  is  always 
tending  towards  a  more  universal  unity  :  he  places 
the  general  forms  of  phenomena  in  an  ideal  harmony, 
which  fancifully  symbolizes  their  laws. 

In  the  succeeding  chapters  we  shall  see  how  this 
process  is  accomplished,  and  how  it  leads  up  to  the 
explicit  exercise  of  the  reason.  A  more  definite  em- 
piric knowledge,  and  the  harmonious  classification  of 
specific  types  with  a  view  to  unity,  are  a  proof  of  a 
relatively  greater  improvement,  both  in  civilization 
and  morality.  This  is  abundantly  shown  in  all  those 


108  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

peoples  who  have  attained  to  an  altogether  anthropo- 
morphic polytheism,  either  among  the  Aryans,  prior 
to  their  dispersion,  in  the  Vedic  period  in  India, 
among  the  Celts,  Graeco-Latms,  Germans,  Slavs,  or 
in  the  Finnish  races,  Mongols,  Chinese,  Assyrians, 
Egyptians,  Mexicans,  and  Peruvians,  as  well  as  among 
the  barbarous  peoples  of  modern  times. 

The  imagination,  the  faculty  which  creates  and 
excites  phantasms  in  man,  is  not,  as  is  erroneously 
supposed,  the  primary  source  of  myths,  but  only  that 
which  in  a  secondary  degree  elaborates  and  perfects 
their  spontaneous  forms  ;  and  precisely  because  it  is 
near  akin  to  this  primordial  mythical  faculty,  it  goes 
on  to  organize  and  classify  these  polytheistic  myths. 
By  a  moral  and  necessary  development  an  approxi- 
mation is  made,  if  not  to  truth  itself,  at  any  rate  to 
its  symbols  ;  whence  reason  is  afterwards  more  easily 
infused  into  myth  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other 
it  is  resolved  into  rational  ideas  and  cosmic  laws. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  poets  perfected  myth  in 
its  influence  on  virtue  and  civilization,  and  by 
them  it  was  directed  into  the  paths  of  science  and  of 
truth. 

As  Dr.  Zeller  has  well  said  in  his  lecture  on  the 
development  of  monotheism  in  Greece  herself,  the 
great  Greek  poets  were  her  first  thinkers,  her  sages, 
as  they  were  afterwards  called.  They  sang  of  Zeus, 
and  exalted  him  as  the  defender  of  righteousness,  the 
representative  of  moral  order.  Archilocus  says  that 


STATEMENT  OF   THE   PROBLEM.  109 

Zeus  weighs  and  measures  all  the  actions  of  good  and 
evil  men,  as  well  as  those  of  animals.  He  is,  said 
Terpandros  somewhat  later,  the  source  and  ruler  of 
all  things.  According  to  Simonides  of  Amorgos,  the 
principle  of  all  created  things  rests  with  him,  and  he 
rules  the  universe  by  his  will.  Thus,  as  time  went 
on,  Zeus  became,  in  the  general  conception,  the  per- 
sonification of  the  world's  government,  which  was 
delivered  from  the  fatality  of  destiny  and  from  the 
promptings  of  caprice.  Destiny  which,  according  to 
the  early  mythical  representation,  it  was  impossible 
to  escape,  is  resolved  into  the  will  of  Zeus,  and  the 
other  gods  which  were  at  first  supposed  to  be  able 
to  oppose  him,  become  his  faithful  ministers.  Such 
is  the  teaching  of  Solon  and  of  Epicharmos.  "Be 
assured  that  nothing  escapes  the  eyes  of  the  divinity  ; 
God  watches  over  us,  and  to  him  nothing  is  im- 
possible." 

This  impulse  of  the  imaginative  faculty  combined 
with  the  process  of  reason  is  most  plainly  seen  in  the 
conceptions  of  the  three  great  poets  of  the  fifth  century, 
Pindar,  ^Eschylus,  and  Sophocles.  In  the  words  of 
Pindar :  "  All  things  depend  on  God  alone ;  all  which 
befalls  mortals,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil  fortune,  is 
due  to  Zeus :  he  can  draw  light  from  darkness,  and 
can  veil  the  sweet  light  of  day  in  obscurity.  No 
human  action  escapes  him :  happiness  is  found  only 
in  the  way  which  leads  to  him ;  virtue  and  wisdom 
flow  from  him  alone." 


110  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

We  find  the  same  order  and  manner  of  thought  in 
JEschylus,  although  he  remained  faithful  to  the  poly- 
theistic creed,  which  indeed  confirms  the  truth  of 
our  theory.  The  moral  law  was  gradually  developed 
and  purified  by  this  long  succession  of  poets,  and  it 
clearly  appears  from  JSschylus  and  his  successors 
how  man  reaps  that  which  he  has  sown :  he  whose 
heart  and  hands  are  pure  lives  his  life  unmolested, 
while  guilt  sooner  or  later  brings  its  own  punishment 
with  it.  The  Erynnyes  rule  the  fates  of  men,  and 
may  be  said  to  sap  the  vital  forces  of  the  guilty ;  they 
cleave  to  them,  excite  and  stimulate  them  to  madness 
until  «death  comes.  The  ancient  and  mysterious 
mythical  tradition  of  the  strife  between  the  old  gods 
and  the  new  was  astutely  used  by  ^Bschylus  to  teach 
us  how  the  terrible  vengeance  of  the  Eumenides 
gradually  gave  place  to  a  gentler  and  more  humane 
law;  just  as  the  primitive  despotism  of  Zeus  was 
gradually  transformed  into  a  providential  and  moral 
rule  of  the  universe. 

Sophocles  attained  to  a  higher  degree  of  perfection 
in  the  paths  of  gentleness.  No  ancient  poet  has  spoken 
more  nobly  of  the  Deity,  although  his  language  is 
altogether  polytheistic.  He  shows  the  highest  rever- 
ence to  the  gods,  whose  power  and  laws  rule  all  human 
life.  On  them  all  things  depend,  both  good  and  evil, 
nor  could  any  one  violate  with  impunity  the  eternal 
order  of  things.  No  act  or  thought  escapes  the  gods ; 
they  are  the  source  of  wisdom  and  happiness.  Man 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PKOBLEM.       Ill 

must  meekly  comply  with  their  precepts,  and  must 
offer  up  his  pains  and  sorrows  to  Zeus. 

These  utterances  of  the  ancient  poets  never  go 
beyond  the  range  of  polytheism,  yet  they  show  how 
far  intrinsic  morality  and  truth  were  developed,  even 
by  the  imaginative  and  mythical  faculty  of  the  human 
mind,  during  the  gradual  historical  evolution  of  the 
race.  The  plurality  of  gods  appears  to  be  the  mani- 
festation of  the  divine  principle;  their  action  on  the 
world  lost  almost  all  trace  of  arbitrary  power  and  of 
their  former  versatility  and  caprice.  The  super- 
stition of  polytheism  remained,  but  it  had  an  inward 
tendency  to  more  rational  conceptions  and  principles. 

From  this  brief  notice,  as  well  as  from  the  remarks 
which  preceded  it,  it  appears  how  the  evolution  of 
myth,  from  its  beginning  and  in  its  historic  course, 
led  to  a  more  perfect,  although  empiric  acquaintance 
with  the  world,  and  with  the  moral  principles  and 
civilization  of  peoples.  The  logical  faculty  by  which 
the  development  is  gradually  effected  is  the  same  by 
which  from  another  point  of  view  science  becomes 
possible. 

We  have  clearly  demonstrated  the  indisputable  fact 
that  the  absolute  condition  of  intrinsic  animal  per- 
ception, and  consequently  of  the  primary  perception 
of  man,  was  the  animation  and  vivification  of  the 
things  and  phenomena  perceived.  This  primary  ac- 
quaintance with  things  depended  on  their  spontaneous 
resolution  into  active  and  personal  subjects.  Nor 
6 


112  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

could  it  be  otherwise.  Although  the  scientific  idea 
or  notion  of  objective  reality  in  itself  could  not  be 
grasped  by  simple  animal  intelligence,  the  impression 
of  the  thing  perceived  was  necessarily  that  of  a  sub- 
jectivity resembling  that  of  the  observer,  not  indeed 
in  outward  form  and  figure  but  in  intrinsic  power, 
whatever  might  be  the  extrinsic  form  and  figure  of  the 
object  or  phenomenon. 

The  original  condition  of  animals,  and  of  man  him- 
self in  his  primordial  life  and  consciousness,  is  and 
was  the  intrinsic  personification  of  the  things  per- 
ceived :  from  this  source  the  human  intellect  slowly 
and  with  difficulty  attained  to  science,  by  virtue  of 
that  psychical  reduplication  which  has  been  so  often 
mentioned. 

The  motive  or  subject  of  myth  may  be  external, 
cosmic,  or  it  may  be  internal,  intellectual,  and  moral, 
but  in  each  case  the  cause  and  faculty  at  work  are 
the  same.  Just  as  the  primary  condition  of  obser- 
vation, and  consequently  the  motive  principle  of 
science,  consists  in  the  primitive  exercise  of  the  in- 
telligence, which  leads  to  empirical  and  rational 
knowledge,  so  myth  and  science  have  a  common 
origin  in  the  immediate  transformation  of  natural 
objects  and  phenomena  into  living  subjects,  and  they 
flow  from  the  same  deep  source.  The  object  in  view 
is  different,  but  their  constructive  faculty  is  the  same, 
and  they  are,  up  to  a  certain  point  in  their  long  historic 
course,  evolved  in  the  same  way.  Science,  therefore, 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PKOBLEM.  113 

from  one  point  of  view,  is  the  gradual  exhaustion  and 
dissolution  of  myth  into  the  objects  which  are  scienti- 
fically investigated,  and  this  will  appear  more  clearly 
in  the  sequel. 

The  series  of  various  phenomena,  whether  of  light, 
of  meteors,  of  water,  of  vegetable  and  animal  forms, 
which  were  the  first  subjects  of  myths,  became  so 
interwoven  as  finally  to  be  represented  in  an  anthro- 
pomorphic personality,  and  were  thus  gradually  lost 
and  evaporated  in  the  ideal  symbol.  As  time  went 
on,  by  the  exercise  of  the  intelligence,  and  by  the 
aid  of  the  observations  and  collateral  experiments 
naturally  connected  with  them,  man  ended  where  he 
had  begun ;  released  from  myth,  he  only  recognized 
the  facts  and  laws  of  the  world.  This  clearly  shows, 
not  only  the  formation  of  myths,  but  the  process  of 
evolution  by  which  they  pass  into  science,  in  which 
they  find  their  termination. 

If,  however,  myth  and  science  have  the  same  origin, 
and  start  from  a  common  fact,  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple is  necessary,  and  an  internal  human  act,  which 
is  at  once  the  cause  and  genesis  both  of  myth  and 
science.  And  although  the  source  is  one,  myth  and 
science  vary  in  their  aspects  and  effects,  and  have 
different  fields  of  historic  activity,  so  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  trace  the  cause  of  this  diversity  in  their  pro- 
gress and  results,  to  enable  us  to  make  a  scientific 
definition  of  the  nature  of  myth  and  science,  their 
respective  sources  and  objects. 


114  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

If  on  the  one  side  we  continually  see  the  hirth 
of  fresh  myths,  which  ramify  into  many  fertile 
sources  of  superstitions,  of  religions,  of  poetry  and 
SBstheticism ;  on  the  other  side  we  see  almost 
simultaneously  a  more  or  less  distinct  and  lively 
manifestation  of  the  scientific  faculty,  although  still 
in  an  empirical  form.  They  are  like  two  streams 
which  issue  from  the  same  source  and  take  a  parallel 
course,  sometimes  mingling  their  waters,  only  to 
separate  anew,  and  then  again  to  become  united  as 
they  fall  by  a  wide  mouth  into  the  sea. 

In  this  manner  we  have  ascertained  the  actual 
origin  of  science  and  of  myth,  and  have  entered  on  a 
field  perhaps  never  before  attempted  nor  contem- 
plated ;  we  have  established  a  firm  basis  for  such  re- 
searches, and,  which  is  perhaps  still  more  important, 
have  shown  the  continuity  of  the  mythical  faculty 
between  man  and  the  animal  kingdom.  We  have 
ascertained  this  fact,  in  its  cosmic  necessities,  both 
physiological  and  psychical,  but  without  considering 
the  faculty  on  which  it  depends ;  we  have  still  to 
decompose  the  elements  of  which  it  consists,  and  to 
consider  their  nature  and  number. 

This  inquiry  forms  the  chief  problem  we  have  to 
solve,  and  it  is  precisely  what  we  have  endeavoured 
to  state  in  this  chapter.  In  the  necessary  order  of 
things  the  fact  has  its  physiological  and  cosmic  con- 
ditions in  man;  it  is  therefore  necessarily  internal 
and  psychical,  and  it  is  accomplished  by  the  special 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  PKOBLEM.       115 

and  intrinsic  exercise  of  the  intelligence.  We  shall 
be  convinced  of  this  truth  if  we  only  consider  that 
science  and  myth  have  a  common  origin. 

It  is  evident  that  there  are  great  difficulties  in 
such  an  inquiry;  for,  putting  aside  other  extrinsic 
difficulties,  we  have  to  reduce  to  a  single  act  or  fact 
the  origin  of  the  two  vast  worlds  of  myth  and  science  ; 
it  is  needful  to  gauge  the  inmost  psychical  faculty  of 
the  intelligence,  and  to  discover  the  continuous  yet 
rapid  and  delicate  process  of  its  exercise. 

If  we  are  able  to  attain  our  object  and  to  tear 
away  the  veil  which  conceals  this  mysterious  act,  we 
shall  have  a  noble  recompense  in  the  laborious  path 
on  which  we  have  entered,  inasmuch  as  we  shall 
reveal  one  of  the  most  important  laws  of  life,  of  the 
exercise  of  reflex  intelligence  and  of  the  genesis  of 
science.  Yet  we  are  very  sensible  how  far  we  are 
from  being  equal  to  the  enormous  difficulties  of  this 
inquiry. 


CHAPTEK  Y. 

THE    ANIMAL    AND    HUMAN    EXERCISE     OF    THE    INTELLECT 
IN    THE    PERCEPTION    OF    THINGS. 

APPREHENSION  is  the  act,  both  in  animals  and  in  man, 
by  which  the  spontaneous  and  immediate  animation 
of  things  and  of  phenomena  is  accomplished.  It  is 
therefore  necessary  to  pause  and  consider  this  act, 
since  it  is,  even  in  man,  the  source  and  foundation  of 
the  origin  of  myth,  and  in  it  we  shall  find  the  causes, 
elements,  and  action  by  which  such  a  genesis  is 
effected.  This  fact  is  so  evident  that  the  necessity  of 
making  such  an  inquiry  might  almost  be  taken  for 
granted,  since  the  truth  can  be  ascertained  in  no 
other  way. 

In  the  case  of  animal  perception,  which  we  have 
already  considered,  the  external  perception  of  an 
object  is  composed  of  three  elements :  the  pheno- 
menon perceived,  the  living  subject  with  which  this 
phenomenon  is  animated,  and  the  vague  yet  real 
power  involved  in  the  life  thus  infused  into  it  by  the 
animal.  Supposing  any  other  animal  to  be  the  object 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN   PERCEPTION.  117 

perceived,  these  three  elements  are  self-evident ;  since 
the  phenomenon  perceived  in  a  given  form  causes  the 
immediate  assumption  that  it  is  a  subject,  actuated 
by  a  purpose  of  offence  or  defence,  and  hence  follows 
the  apprehension  of  a  power  capable  of  affecting  him, 
which  has  in  this  case  a  real  existence.  Pheno- 
menon, subject,  effective  power,  follow  in  a  rapid  and 
inevitable  sequence,  and  are  instantly  combined  in 
the  integral  image  formed  of  the  object  apprehended 
by  the  senses. 

In  fact,  an  animal  which  fights  with  another,  which 
seizes  on  his  food  as  a  prey,  or  which  is  in  dread  of 
some  enemy  or  unfamiliar  object,  recognizes  either  the 
species  or  the  individual  from  its  external  form,  and 
constitutes  it  into  an  animated  subject,  and  ultimately 
into  an  actively  offensive  or  defensive  power,  or  into 
one  which  satisfies  his  appetites.  Such  a  fact,  and 
such  elements  of  the  fact,  recur  in  the  whole  animal 
kingdom,  even  among  those  which  only  apprehend 
external  things  by  the  sense  of  touch.  As  we  ascend 
higher  in  the  scale  of  animals  to  those  who  possess 
other  senses  and  a  more  elaborate  organism,  we  find 
the  same  fact  in  a  more  perfect  and  distinct  form. 

Those  animals  which,  since  they  are  without  the 
sense  of  sight,  have  no  perception  of  distance,  wait 
until  their  prey  touches  their  antennae,  mouths,  or 
claws,  and  yet  the  same  distinct  act  is  accomplished 
in  these  three  specified  elements.  They  would  not 
lie  in  wait  for  their  prey,  unless  they  had  already 


118  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

formed  a  conception  of  its  possible  image,  consisting 
of  a  form,  subject,  and  effective  force,  combined  in  a 
single  intuition.  When  this  external  prey  is  pre- 
sented to  the  senses,  the  phenomenon,  subject,  and 
effective  power  arise  in  rapid  succession,  and  are 
united  in  one  unique  consciousness.  This  truth 
appears  from  the  animal's  efforts  not  to  let  his  prey 
escape  destruction. 

'  From  the  reciprocal  apprehension  of  animals, 
these  three  elements  which  constitute  it  may  be 
clearly  seen.  Although  such  a  truth,  precisely  because 
it  is  evident,  may  appear  simple  to  those  who  seek 
truth  from  the  clouds,  or  by  means  of  logical  or  tor- 
tuous artifice,  yet  such  are  the  characteristics  of  true 
science.  For  the  new  facts  which  she  interprets  and 
classifies  appear  old  as  soon  as  they  are  understood, 
although  they  have  never  before  been  explained. 

Although  such  a  fact  is  manifest  in  the  case  of 
reciprocal  animal  perceptions,  it  may  appear  more 
difficult  to  verify  it  with  respect  to  perceptions  which 
do  not  refer  to  other  animals,  but  to  natural  pheno- 
mena, or  to  inanimate,  unconscious  things.  We  have 
shown  that  all  animal  perception  is  possible  only  so 
far  as  they  are  able  to  infuse  their  own  consciousness 
and  psychical  power  into  every  object  of  nature,  since 
they  are  unable  to  comprehend  the  thing  or  pheno- 
menon except  as  an  objective  reality,  without  reference 
to  its  real  cosmic  importance.  Since  this  is  neces- 
sarily the  case,  the  object  perceived,  even  when  it  is 


ANIMAL   AND  HUMAN  PEKCEPTION.  119 

not  an  animal,  is  always  transformed  into  a  living 
subject,  acting  deliberately.  And  although  this  is 
sometimes  done  in  a  vague  way,  when  the  object  in 
question  has  not  the  external  form  and  movements 
of  an  animal,  yet  it  is  always  regarded  as  a  real 
power. 

When  a  well  broken  horse,  for  example,  goes  on 
his  way  quietly,  perceiving  nothing  which  strongly 
attracts  nor  alarms  him,  the  sudden  flutter  of  a 
cloth,  the  flaring  of  a  lamp,  the  rush  of  water,  or 
some  violent  noise  will  cause  him  to  stop,  to  plunge 
and  kick,  or  to  bolt  away.  We  have  already  shown, 
by  experiment,  the  exciting  cause  of  his  alarm  and 
suspicion.  The  sudden  fluttering  of  the  cloth  in 
the  wind  was  a  phenomenon  perceived  by  the  horse, 
and  since  he  regarded  this  phenomenon  as  an  ani- 
mated subject,  and  consequently  as  a  real  power,  it 
is  evident  that  his  fear  was  caused  by  the  sudden 
appearance  of  a  living  form,  and  the  direct  appre- 
hension of  a  subject  which  might  possibly  be  hurtful 
or  dangerous.  In  this  way,  the  circle  is  completed  and 
combined  in  one  unique  phantasm ;  a  phenomenon, 
a  living  subject,  and  a  real  power. 

In  this  instance,  the  psychical  law  is  so  clear  that 
it  can  hardly  be  disputed.  But  if  we  consider  any 
other  animal  perceptions,  we  find  that  the  law  still 
holds  good,  as  we  have  already  shown  in  various 
instances.  In  all  cases  the  apprehension  takes  place 
in  the  same  way,  and  consists  of  the  same  elements, 


120  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

namely,  of  a  phenomenon,  a  living  subject,  and  a 
real  power.  The  exercise  of  animal  apprehension 
is  the  rapid,  necessary,  and  perpetual  concentration 
into  a  single  image  of  the  phenomenon,  subject,  and 
cause ;  that  is,  given  the  perception  of  a  phenomenon, 
the  animal  endows  it,  with  respect  to  himself,  with 
consciousness,  and  consequently  with  real  power. 

In  fact,  the  faculty  of  perception  cannot  be  exer- 
cised in  any  other  way,  nor  can  it  consist  of  any 
other  elements.  In  nature,  the  sensible  qualities  of 
things  are  all  resolved  into  general  and  special  phe- 
nomena, appearances,  and  extrinsic  forms,  as  far  as 
animal  and  human  intuition,  and  the  character  of 
the  subject  which  perceives  and  feels  them,  are  con- 
cerned ;  and  they  are  perceived  just  so  far  as  we  and. 
as  animals  are  able  to  communicate  by  means  of  our 
senses  with  the  world  and  with  ourselves.  A  phe- 
nomenon and  an  intrinsic  form  signify,  at  the 
moment  of  perception,  the  thing,  the  object  which 
the  conditions  of  our  senses  enable  us  to  perceive, 
and  the  intrinsic  power  of  this  phenomenon  implies 
a  cause.  Natural  phenomena  and  beings  are  thus 
reciprocally  linked  together  as  causes  -and  effects,  an 
effect  becoming  in  its  turn  the  cause  of  a  subsequent 
fact ;  that  is,  when  we  consider  things  in  themselves, 
and  not  relatively  to  the  animal  or  man  who  appre- 
hends them. 

If,  therefore,  there  are  in  animal  consciousness 
and    intelligence  three    elements    of    apprehension, 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PEKCEPTION.  121 

afterwards  fused  into  a  single  fact,  it  follows  that 
the  extrinsic  relations  of  beings  and  forces  are  sub- 
jectively reciprocal ;  there  is  the  given  form  of  a 
phenomenon,  and,  intrinsically,  it  consists  of  an 
active  power,  eternally  at  work,  since  there  is  no 
being  nor  form  which  stands  still  and  is  not  repro- 
duced in  the  infinite  evolution  of  the  universe. 

Since,  to  the  percipient,  the  extrinsic  form,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  remains  the  same  as  that  which  was 
first  presented  to  him,  the  phenomenon  is  bounded 
by  his  faculty  of  perception,  followed  by  the  imme- 
diate and  implicit  assumption  of  a  subject,  and 
consequently  of  a  possible  and  indefinite  causality. 
This  internal  and  psychical  process  of  the  animal 
corresponds  with  the  actual  condition  of  things,  as 
they  appear  and  really  are ;  a  correspondence  which 
is  in  itself  a  powerful  confirmation  of  the  truth. 

Since  an  animal  is  devoid  of  the  explicit  and  reflex 
process  of  the  intellect,  it  has  not  and  cannot  have 
any  conception  of  the  thing  in  itself,  the  intrinsic 
essence  of  the  phenomenon,  nor  yet  of  the  objective 
and  cosmic  cause;  because  it  animates  the  pheno- 
menon with  its  own  personality,  which  has  assumed 
the  external  form  of  this  phenomenon,  it  is  conscious 
of  a  cause,  like  itself,  transfused  into  the  object  in 
question.  We  have  shown  that  phenomena  affect 
animals  in  this  way,  and  that  they  are  conscious  of 
being  in  a  world  of  living  subjects,  constantly  actuated 
by  the  deliberate  purpose  of  influencing  them. 


122  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

The  faculty  and  elements  of  apprehension  are 
precisely  similar  in  man  and  animals,  since  extrinsic 
things  present  the  same  appearance  to  both  alike, 
and  the  perceptive  power  acts  in  the  same  way.  We 
cannot,  indeed,  go  back  to  our  first  beginnings,  and  it 
is  difficult  for  those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  such 
researches  to  discover  the  primitive  facts  of  their  own 
being,  which  have  been  so  much  modified  by  exercise 
and  the  intrinsic  use  of  reflection  for  many  ages ;  yet 
some  certain  signs  remain,  nor  would  it  be  now  im- 
possible to  reproduce  them.  No  one  can  doubt  that 
man  also  began  to  communicate  with  the  world  and 
with  himself  by  his  perception  of  a  phenomenon,  of 
some  extrinsic  quality  or  form.  From  this  he  directly 
apprehended  the  thing  and  its  cause.  No  intelligent 
person  can  believe  that  man  had  any  direct  intuition 
of  the  thing  in  itself,  independently  of  the  extrinsic 
phenomenon  by  which  it  was  presented  to  his  percep- 
tions :  he  could  not  by  the  sudden  apprehension  of  all 
natural  objects  intuitively  grasp  the  Idea.  This  will 
be  more  fully  shown  in  the  following  chapter. 

In  accordance  with  this  statement,  man,  who  still 
retains  his  animal  nature,  has  exercised  the  same 
faculty  of  apprehension  by  the  synthetic  process  of 
the  three  elements  which  compose  it  in  the  case  of 
animals ;  he  attains  therefore  to  the  same  results,  that 
is,  he  animates  the  object  of  perception,  and  considers 
it  as  an  efficient  cause.  This  identical  faculty  of  per- 
ception in  man  and  animals  was  only  differentiated 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PERCEPTION.  123 

when  the  reflex  power  of  man  subsequently  enabled 
him  to  regard  objects,  as  we  do  now,  as  inanimate, 
and  subject  to  the  universal  laws  of  nature. 

Even  now,  after  all  our  scientific  attainments,  we 
are  not  wholly  free  from  the  former  innate  illusion  ; 
we  often  act  towards  things  as  if  we  lived  in  the  early 
days  of  our  race,  and  continue  that  primitive  process 
of  personification  in  the  case  of  certain  objects. 

We  have  shown  what  was  the  origin  of  the  fetish 
and  of  myth,  and  how  it  arose  from  the  imperso- 
nation of  all  natural  objects  and  phenomena,  which 
are  transformed  into  living  subjects.  This  shows 
that  the  faculty,  elements,  and  results  of  the  appre- 
hension are  identical  in  man  and  animals.  If  man 
created  the  fetish  which  in  process  of  differentia- 
tion generated  all  kinds  of  myths,  he,  like  animals, 
was  directly  and  implicitly  conscious  of  the  living 
subject,  and  in  it  of  an  active  cause.  Although  in 
man  the  fetish  retains  its  personality  in  his  memory, 
and  becomes  the  cause  of  hopes  and  fears  throughout 
his  life,  while  its  effect  on  the  animal  is  only  transitory, 
and  at  the  actual  moment  of  perception ;  yet  this  does 
not  invalidate  the  truth  of  the  principle,  nor  prove 
that  their  impulses  and  genesis  are  not  identical. 
Thus  the  analysis  of  the  faculty  of  apprehension 
confirms  and  explains  the  proof  before  given  of  the 
origin  of  myths,  and  explains  their  causes. 

We  have  all,  however  unaccustomed  to  give  account 
of  our  acts  and  functions,  found  ourselves  in  circum- 


124  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

stances  which  produced  the  momentary  personification 
of  natural  objects.  The  sight  of  some  extraordinary 
phenomenon  produces  a  vague  sense  of  some  one 
acting  with  a  given  purpose,  and  hence  of  an  actual 
fetish.  A  man  will  sometimes  address  the  things 
which  surround  him,  and  act  towards  them  as  if  they 
possessed  consciousness  and  will.  Children,  who  are 
still  without  experience  and  reflection,  will  often 
invest  external  objects  with  solidity. 

A  child,  as  soon  as  it  can  guide  its  own  motions, 
will  grasp  anything  which  is  pliant  and  yielding  as 
firmly  as  if  it  were  solid,  thus  implicitly  judging  the 
thing  from  its  appearance.  In  the  same  way,  a  child 
confidently  relies  on  any  support,  however  weak  and 
insufficient  it  may  be,  arguing  as  usual  from  the 
appearance  to  the  thing  itself.  Nor  must  it  be  said 
that  experience  is  necessary  to  correct  these  errors. 
The  implicit  faculty  of  apprehension  is  prior  to 
experience,  which  only  becomes  possible  by  means 
of  this  faculty.  The  elements  of  this  faculty  uncon- 
sciously fulfil  and  pursue  their  office  in  the  child, 
aided  by  the  reflex  motions  which  are  cerebro- spinal 
and  peripheral,  as  they  have  been  produced  and 
organized  in  the  species  by  evolution;  but  they,  as 
well  as  these  reflex  physiological  motions,  are  prior 
to  the  same  temporary  experience.* 

*  We  are  not  here  concerned  with  a  priori  metaphysics,  but  with 
the  psychical  and  organic  dispositions  slowly  produced  by  evolution 
and  by  consciousness  in  its  cosmic  relations.  The  organic  nature  of 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PERCEPTION.  125 

Thus  the  new-born  infant  sucks  the  milk  which 
serves  for  its  nourishment  from  its  mother's  breast ; 
it  is  impossible  in  this  case  that  such  a  class  of 
elements  should  not  be  spontaneously  developed ;  the 
child  feels  the  nipple  and  adapts  its  mouth  and  mode 
of  breathing  to  it,  while  pressing  the  breast  with  its 
hands  to  express  the  milk.  If  much  in  this  operation 
might  be  ascribed  to  reflex  movements,  yet  in  asso- 
ciation with  them,  supplementing  and  rendering  them 
possible,  there  is  an  implicit  perception  of  the  exter- 
nal phenomenon  through  the  sense  of  touch,  and  he 
becomes  conscious  of  the  object,  and  of  its  causative 
power ;  such  power  consisting  in  this  case  of  its 
capacity  to  satisfy  his  wants.  In  short,  all  animals, 
man  included,  in  every  act  of  communication  with 
the  world,  exercise  this  faculty  by  means  of  the 
three  elements  which  constitute  it.  If  we  consider 
the  actions  of  infants,  and  still  more  of  all  young 
animals,  this  truth  will  be  vividly  displayed. 

In  common  speech,  even  to  this  day,  all  men,  both 
learned  and  unlearned,  speak  of  "inanimate  things  as 
if  they  had  consciousness  and  intelligence.  While 
this  mode  of  expression  bears  witness  to  the  extremely 
early  origin  of  the  general  personification  of  natural 
objects,  it  also  shows  that  even  now  our  intelligence 
is  not  emancipated  from  such  a  habit,  and  our  speech 

these  reflex  phenomena  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  long  course 
of  ages  their  exercise  has,  through  physiological  evolution,  first  become 
voluntary  or  spontaneous,  and  then  unconscious. 


126  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

unconsciously  retains  the  old  custom.  Thus  we  call 
weather  good  and  bad,  the  wind  mad  (pazzo)  or  furious, 
the  sea  treacherous,  the  waters  insidious ;  a  stone  is 
obstinate,  if  we  cannot  easily  move  it,  and  we  inveigh 
against  all  kinds  of  material  obstacles  as  if  they  could 
hear  us.  We  call  the  season  inconstant  or  deceitful, 
the  sun  melancholy  and  unwilling  to  shine,  and  we 
say  that  the  sky  threatens  snow.  We  say  that  some 
plants  are  consumed  by  heat,  that  some  soils  are 
indomitable,  that  well  cultivated  ground  is  no  longer 
wild,  that  in  a  good  season  the  whole  landscape 
smiles  and  leaps  for  joy.  A  river  is  called  malevolent, 
and  a  lake  swallows  up  men ;  the  earth  is  thirsty 
and  sucks  up  moisture,  and  plants  fear  the  cold. 
The  people  of  Pistoja  say  that  some  olive  trees  will 
not  feel  a  thrashing,  that  they  are  afraid,  of  many 
things,  and  that  they  live  on,  despising  the  course 
of  years.  Again,  they  say  that  olive  trees  are  not 
afraid  of  the  pruning  knife,  and  that  they  rejoice  in 
its  use  by  a  skilled  hand.  Thousands  of  such  ex- 
pressions might  be  adduced,  and  we  refer  our  readers 
to  Giuliani's  work,  "  Lingua ggio  vivente  toscano." 

Nor  do  we  only  ascribe  our  own  feelings  to  inani- 
mate things,  but  we  also  invest  them  with  the  forms 
and  members  of  the  human  body.  We  speak  of  the 
head,  shoulder,  back,  or  foot  of  a  mountain,  of  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  a  tongue  of  land,  the  mouth  of  a 
sea-port,  of  a  cave,  or  crater.  So  again  we  ascribe 
teeth  to  mountains,  a  front  (fronte,  forehead)  to  a 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PERCEPTION.  127 

house ;  there  is  the  eye-brow  (ciglio)  of  a  ditch,  the 
eye  of  heaven,  a  vein  of  metal,  the  entrails  of  a 
mountain.  The  Alps  are  hald  or  bare,  the  soil  is 
wrinkled,  objects  are  sinister  or  the  reverse  (sinistra, 
destra)*  and  a  mountain  is  gigantic  or  dwarfish. 

In  like  manner  we  ascribe  our  own  functions  to 
nature.  The  river  eats  into  the  land ;  the  whirlpool 
swallows  all  which  is  thrown  into  it,  and  the  wind 
whistles,  howls  and  moans ;  the  torrent  murmurs, 
the  sun  is  born  and  dies,  the  heavens  frown,  the  fields 
smile.  This  habit  is  also  transferred  to  moral  ques- 
tions;  and  we  speak  of  the  heart  of  the  question,  the 
leading  idea,  the  body  of  doctrines,  the  members  of  a 
philosophic  system ;  we  infuse  new  blood  into  thought. 
Truth  becomes  palpable,  a  theme  is  eviscerated,  thought 
is  lame,  science  is  childish.  History  speaks  clearly ; 
there  is  an  embryo  of  knowledge,  a  vacillating  science ; 
the  infancy,  youth,  maturity,  and  death  of  a  theory ; 
morality  is  crass,  the  spirit  meagre  or  acute;  the 
mind  adapts  itself,  logic  is  maimed  ;  there  is  a  conflict 
of  ideas,  the  inspiration  of  science,  truncated  thoughts. 
Again  we  talk  of  the  head  of  the  mob,  of  the  foot  of 
the  altar  or  the  throne,  of  the  heart  of  the  riot,  of  the 
body  of  an  army,  of  a  phalanx,  of  trampling  under 
foot,  duty,  decency,  and  justice. 

From  these  examples,  and  indeqd  we  might  say 

*  The  double  meaning  is  projected  into  objects.  The  primitive 
meaning  of  dexter  was  fitting,  capable,  and  it  was  then  applied  to 
the  side  of  the  material  body.  Sansc.  cZacs,  to  hasten.  Ascoli,  Studi 
linguist  id, 


128  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

from  the  whole  of  speech,  especially  if  we  go  back  to 
the  primitive  value  of  words  and  to  their  roots,  it 
appears  to  what  a  vast  extent  man  originally  projected 
himself,  his  consciousness,  emotions,  and  purposes 
into  inanimate  things ;  and  how,  even  under  the 
historical  conditions  of  civilization,  he  still  personifies 
the  world,  and  ascribes  to  it  the  forms  of  his  own 
body  and  limbs. 

Again,  we  have  plainly  shown  that  man,  by 
the  intrinsic  reduplication  of  his  psychical  faculty, 
spontaneously  retains  and  personifies  the  inward 
phantasm  generated  by  such  a  projection  of  special 
natural  objects  on  his  perception.  In  the  genesis  of 
such  fetishes,  and  also  when,  by  an  effort  of  will,  he 
recalls  them  to  his  mind,  this  faculty  with  its  con- 
stituent elements  is  brought  into  action.  In  fact, 
when  the  image  is  recalled  to  the  mind,  it  is  repre- 
sented like  the  external  phenomenon ;  and  consequently 
it  involves  and  generates  the  thing  of  which  the 
phenomenon  is  the  external  vest,  that  is,  its  causative 
power ;  and  in  this  way  the  objective  process  of  its 
formation  is  inwardly  reproduced.  Since  the  cosmic 
reality  is  thus  ideally  reproduced,  the  inward  sub- 
stance of  the  fetish  assumes  a  really  efficacious  power, 
whether  in  its  extrinsic  form,  or  in  its  intrinsic 
image,  and  in  this  way  primitive  superstitions  had 
their  source. 

In  the  case  of  savage  and  primitive  man  the  inward 
image  of  the  fetish  without  its  bodily  presence  is, 


ANIMAL  AND   HUMAN  PERCEPTION. 

owing  to  the  process  already  described,  not  merely 
valid  as  a  real  entity,  but  it  becomes  a  mysterious 
apparition  in  the  sphere  of  fancy,  in  a  way  analogous 
to  our  belief  in  the  reality  of  things  seen  in  a  dream 
or  in  moments  of  hallucination.  This  appears  in  the 
history  of  all  peoples  past  and  present,  whence  it  is 
certain  that  primitive  man  not  only  formed  personifi- 
cations of  external  objects  and  of  his  own  emotions, 
but  also  of  their  images,  as  they  were  retained  in 
his  memory.  In  both  cases  the  sequence  of  the  three 
elements  of  apprehension,  the  phenomenon,  subject, 
and  cause,  is  due  to  the  same  unique  faculty;  in  a 
word,  the  inward  perception  is  identical  in  its  genesis 
and  laws  with  that  which  is  external. 

These  are  not  the  only  results  which  follow  from 
the  exercise  of  this  faculty.  By  the  spontaneous 
classifying  action  of  our  intelligence  we  rise  from 
the  perception  of  special  and  individual  objects  and 
phenomena  to  their  various  types,  and  hence  to  an 
inward  and  ideal  world  of  specific  representations, 
as  if  these  were  causative  powers,  informing  the 
multitude  of  analogous  and  similar  phenomena  in 
which  they  are  manifested.  These  specific  types, 
which  are  more  strongly  present  to  the  fancy  in  the 
primitive  exercise  of  the  intelligence,  also  become 
personified,  and  they  generate  what  is  called  poly- 
theism in  all  its  forms,  varying  according  to  the 
races,  times,  places,  and  respective  conditions  of 
morality  and  civilization  in  which  they  are  found. 


130  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

The  same  psychical  faculty  and  the  same  elements 
are  necessary  for  the  personification  of  such  types  or 
idols.  The  three  elements  appear  in  their  proper 
sequence  even  in  the  amorphous  phantasms  which 
these  types  first  shadow  forth,  and  which  are  subse- 
quently perfected  and  embodied  in  human  form.  For 
the  consciousness  of  the  external  form  always  existr 
in  the  first  vague  and  nebulous  conception  of  the 
phantasm  which  gradually  appears  and  formulates 
itself  in  the  vivid  imagination  ;  and  hence  follows  the 
phenomenal  vest,  which,  as  usual,  generates  the 
corresponding  subject,  informed  with  a  causative 
power.  This  process  clearly  shows,  and  in  fact  con- 
stitutes, the  essence  of  myth. 

Since  the  types  vary  very  much,  and  are  indeed 
unstable  from  their  very  nature,  constantly  becoming 
formed  and  again  decomposed,  the  primitive  myth- 
ologies of  all  people  are  in  like  manner  very  various, 
indefinite,  and  subject  to  constant  change. 

It  appears  in  the  Vedic  mythology,  and  also  in 
that  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Latins,  how  often  the 
typical  myths  of  Agni,  Varuna,  Indra,  Asvini,  and 
Maruti;  and  again,  of  Zeus,  Here,  Athene,  and  the 
rest,  are  changed  and  reconstituted.  This  shows  how 
the  same  human  faculty,  the  same  elements  which 
constitute  the  perception  and  primitive  personification 
of  external  phenomena,  are  those  also  of  the  specific 
and  intrinsic  phenomena.  Just  as  man,  in  the  primi- 
tive conditions  of  his  existence,  by  the  psychical  and 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PERCEPTION.  131 

physiological  law  of  his  perception,  which  he  has  in 
common  with  animals,  transformed  the  world  and 
its  phenomena  into  subjects  endowed  with  conscious 
life;  so  hy  his  psychical  faculty  of  reduplication  he 
personified  the  mental  images  of  these  same  subjects 
as  fetishes  and  myths ;  and  subsequently  invested 
them  with  more  distinctly  human  forms,  and  also 
with  specific  types  of  humanity.  The  same  faculty 
and  conditions  of  animal  perception  afterwards  become 
the  true  and  only  causes  of  the  superstitions,  mytho- 
logies, and  religions  of  mankind.  The  law  of  con- 
tinuity is  unbroken,  and  this  is  a  certain  confirmation 
of  the  truth. 

This  faculty,  inward  function,  and  process  of 
mythical  and  symbolic  facts  led  in  course  of  time  to 
the  evolution  and  beginning  of  knowledge,  which  is 
first  empirical  and  then  rational.  Therefore,  we  must 
repeat,  the  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  perception,  the 
specification  of  types,  and  their  modification  into  a 
unity  which  was  always  becoming  more  compre- 
hensive, are  the  conditions  and  method  of  science 
itself,  which  is  only  developed  by  means  of  this 
faculty.  Hence  the  elements  and  intrinsic  logical 
form  of  science  are  identical  with  those  through 
which  mythical  representations  and  the  inward  life 
of  the  human  intelligence  are  developed.* 

*  A  careful  reader  will  not  hold  this  repetition  to  be  unnecessary, 
since  it  explains  from  another  point  of  view  the  fundamental  fact  of 
perception  and  its  results.  It  is  here  considered  with  reference  to  the 
three  elements  which  constitute  this  fact. 


132  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Besides,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  the  empirical 
knowledge  of  things  begins  and  is  perfected  in  the 
superstitions  of  fetishes  and  myths.  Ideas  are 
modified  and  become  purer  as  they  converge  into 
types,  and  the  principle  and  method  at  once 
become  more  rational.  Either  in  the  faculty  of  per- 
ception and  in  its  elements,  or  in  the  inward  classi- 
fication of  specific  forms,  or  again  in  the  more 
perfect  empirical  knowledge  of  phenomena,  the  pro- 
gress of  myth  and  science  go  on  together,  and  they 
are  not  only  developed  in  a  parallel  direction,  but 
the  form  becomes  the  covering,  involucre,  matrix,  or, 
as  I  might  say,  the  cotyledons,  by  means  of  whichx 
the  latter  is  developed  and  nourished.  Even  in 
more  rational  science  this  faculty,  and  these  elements, 
necessarily  recur?  since  in  every  human  conception 
we  find  the  material  aspect,  or  its  mental  image,  the 
thing  and  its  cause,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  some 
mythical  personality  is  insensibly  identified  with  it. 

The  act  which  produces  myth  is  therefore  the 
same  from  which  science  proceeds,  so  that  their 
original  source  is  identical.  The  same  process  which 
constitutes  the  fetish  and  myth  also  constitutes 
science  in  its  conditions  and  form,  and  here  we  find 
the  unique  fact  which  generates  them  both ;  science, 
like  myth,  would  be  impossible  without  apprehension, 
without  the  individuation  of  ideas,  and  the  classifica- 
tion and  specification  of  types. 

Before  going  further  I  must  briefly  recapitulate 


ANIMAL  AND  HUMAN  PERCEPTION.  133 

the  order  of  ideas  and  facts  which  we  have 
observed,  so  that  the  process  may  be  as  strictly 
logical  as  it  is  practical.  Since,  in  the  elements 
of  apprehension,  perception  is  absolutely  identical  in 
man  and  animals,  its  primitive  effects  in  animating 
natural  phenomena  are  the  same.  But  man,  by 
means  of  his  reduplicative  faculty,  retains  a  mental 
image  of  the  personified  subject  which  is  only 
transitory  in  the  case  of  animals,  and  it  thus 
becomes  an  inward  fetish,  by  the  same  law,  and 
consisting  of  the  same  elements  as  that  which  is 
only  extrinsic.  These  phantasms  are,  moreover,  per- 
sonified by  the  classifying  process  of  types,  they  are 
transformed  into  human  images,  and  arranged  in  a 
hierarchy,  and  to  this  the  various  religions  and 
mythologies  of  the  world  owe  their  origin.  Since 
such  a  process  is  also  the  condition  and  form  of 
knowledge,  the  source  of  myth  and  science  is  funda- 
mentally the  same,  for  they  are  generated  by 
the  same  psychical  fact.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the 
progress  of  human  intelligence  was  developed  in 
the  course  of  ages;  its  attitude  varies  in  various 
races,  but  the  impulses,  the  faculty,  and  its  elements 
are  identical.  I  do  not  think  that  this  unique  fact 
in  which  myth  and  science  have  their  source  has 
been  observed  before ;  still  less  has  any  one  defined 
the  limits  of  human  intelligence,  and  recognized  in 
the  simple  acts  of  animals  the  formal  and  absolute 
conditions  of  human  science,  and  the  origin  of  myth. 


134:  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

If  I  am  not  deluded  by  a  prejudice  in  favour  of  my 
own  researches,  this  theory  is  a  contribution  to  truth. 
It  is  confirmed  by  the  solidarity  which  it  establishes 
between  the  acts  and  laws  of  the  psychical  human 
faculty,  and  that  of  animals  which  necessarily  pre- 
ceded it.  No  science  can  be  constituted  without  such 
solidarity;  this  great  truth  was  felt  and,  after  their 
manner,  demonstrated  by  scholastic  philosophers,  or, 
as  it  was  afterwards  scientifically  expressed  by  the 
genius  of  Leibnitz  :  Natura  nonfacit  saltum! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    INTRINSIC   LAW  OF   THE    FACULTY  OF   APPREHENSION. 

WE  have  now  carefully  considered  the  acts  and 
dyna'mic  activity  of  human  thought.  We  have  seen 
in  what  animal  and  human  perception  consists,  and 
how  it  acts;  how  the  subjects  developed  in  our 
imagination  are  gradually  united  in  specific  forms 
or  types,  and  are  arranged  in  a  system,  whence 
follow  the  first  symbolic  representations  of  science. 
But  our  task  is  not  yet  accomplished,  since  much 
more  is  needed  to  display  all  that  this  fact  involves, 
so  that  we  may  fully  understand  the  inward  evolu- 
tion of  myth  and  science  in  history  and  in  our  race, 
and  not  merely  in  the  individual  man. 

The  faculty  and  its  effects,  which  could  primarily 
be  reduced  to  this  unique  and  indivisible  fact,  do  not 
exclusively  belong  to  primordial  ages,  but  go  on 
through  all  time,  our  own  included,  while  assuming 
divers  forms  and  fresh  aspects  as  the  faculty  of  the 
intellect  becomes  more  developed.  It  is  an  indis- 
putable truth  that  the  influence  of  myth  on  thought 
7 


136  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

and  fancy,  a  survival  from  prehistoric  ages,  still  pre- 
vails among  the  common  people  both  in  town  and 
country,  among  those  who  are  uncultivated,  and  even  in 
the  higher  classes  conventionally  called  good  society. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  trace  the  occasional  exist- 
ence of  the  same  influence  among  those  who  think 
rationally  and  investigate  the  laws  of  the  universe 
while  acquainted  with  the  earlier  mythical  process  ; 
and  yet,  as  we  shall  show,  the  greatest  and  most 
able  men  are  not  unfettered  by  it.  Myth  has 
hitherto  been  regarded  as  a  secondary  and  fanciful 
product  of  the  psychical  human  faculty,  due  to 
extrinsic  impulses,  rather  than  as  the  primitive  and 
intrinsic  necessity  of  the  intelligence — a  necessity 
which  has  its  roots  in  animal  intelligence  itself ;  and 
the  unique  fact  which  generates  both  myth  and 
science  has  not  been  ascertained.  If  this  fact  and 
law  had  been  discovered  before,  we  should  have  more 
readily  understood  religions,  philosophic  systems,  and 
the  successive  forms  of  science,  and  pure  reason 
would  have  made  more  rapid  progress.  Our  theory, 
besides  giving  a  rational  explanation  of  the  different 
forms  assumed  by  thought  in  the  course  of  its 
historic  evolution,  will,  I  hope,  also  account  for 
many  psychological  phenomena  which  have  hitherto 
been  imperfectly  understood,  such  as  dreams,  hal- 
lucinations, the  aberrations  of  insanity,  and  the  like. 
The  primitive  fact  and  its  effects  reappear  in  these 
conditions,  and  this  influence  is  persistent  and 


INTKINSIC  LAW  OF  APPKEHENSION.  137 

enters  into  all  our  acts,  conscious   or   unconscious, 
voluntary  or  involuntary. 

It  follows  from  the  innate  necessity  of  the  per 
ception  that  objects  and  their  extrinsic  and  intrinsic 
causes  are  resolved  into  living  subjects,  and  are 
classified  in  a  hierarchy  of  specific  types,  which 
are  accepted  by  the  primitive  and  ignorant  mind  as 
the  universal  mythical  forms.*  But  the  necessities  of 
human  speech,  which  is  however  involved  in  mythical 
representations,  from  the  very  beginning  essentially 
reflex,  require  other  terms  than  those  of  individual 
and  specific  animations.  It  is  clear  that  the  simple 
personifying  faculty  of  the  intellect  sufficed  in  its 
earliest  emotions,  but  that  after  the  slow  development 
of  psychical  reduplication,  and  the  enlargement  of 
languages  and  ideas,  it  no  longer  satisfied  the  logical 
requirements  of  the  mind. 

Consequently,  explicit, — that  is,  rational — singular, 
and  specific  ideas  gradually  arose  and  assumed  a 
definite  form;  they  were  interwoven  and  fused  into 
these  individual  and  specific  types,  and  thus  obtained 
a  place  in  the  thoughts  and  language  of  primitive 
man.  The  gradual  intrusion  of  specific  rational 
ideas  is  natural  to  the  human  mind,  since  it  is  logi- 
cally progressive,  and  the  fact  may  be  observed  by 
those  who  watch  the  mental  growth  of  children,  and 
of  ignorant  and  untaught  adults. 

*  This  great  truth  was  observed  by  Vico,  the  most  advanced  01 
modern  psychologists,  in  his  views  of  primitive  psychology. 


138  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Willie  the  mythical  intelligence  continues  as 
before  to  give  its  habitual  mythical  interpretation 
of  many  natural  phenomena,  the  use  is  gradually 
acquired  of  special  and  generic  symbols  which  ex- 
press special  and  specific  ideas,  and  these  no  longer 
include  a  personification  of  the  individual  thing  or 
idea.  Without  this  intrusion  of  rational  ideas  any 
progress  would  be  impossible,  as  well  as  the  power  of 
expressing  all  which  time  and  education  present  to 
the  mind,  and  gradually  enable  it  to  comprehend; 
the  fanciful  image  is  fused  in  a  rational  conception, 
which  is,  however,  not  yet  definite  and  explicit. 

What  are  commonly  termed  abstract  ideas  arise 
from  this  necessity,  as  the  result  of  the  perfection 
and  development  of  speech,  but  these  were  not  at 
first  abstract,  although  they  made  use  of  the  abstract 
idea.  Unconscious  abstraction  is  certainly  one  of 
the  primary  acts  of  the  intelligence,  since  abstraction 
follows  from  the  consideration  of  a  part  or  of  some 
parts  of  a  whole,  which  are  themselves  presented  as 
a  whole  to  the  perception.  But  this  primitive  ab- 
straction was  so  far  a  concrete  fact  for  the  percep- 
tion, in  that  each  act  of  the  apprehension  constituted 
a  phenomenon  of  which  the  apparent  character 
was  abstracted  from  the  other  parts  which  formed 
a  whole,  and  was  transformed  into  a  living  subject, 
as  we  have  already  shown  at  length.  The  really 
explicit  abstraction,  to  which  man  only  attained  after 
many  ages,  consisting  in  the  simple  representation 


INTKINSIC   LAW   OF  APPEEHENSION.  139 

of  a  quality  or  part  of  a  thing,  could  not  at  that 
time  be  effected,  although  special  and  specific  ideas 
gradually  found  their  way  into  thought  and  speech. 
All  the  terms  for  form  and  relation  in  primitive 
speech,  and  also  among  modern  savages,  confirm  this 
assertion,  as  linguists  are  aware ;  the  form  and  rela- 
tion now  expressing  an  abstract  reference  to  actions 
and  passions  in  the  verbs,  nouns,  and  adverbs,  origin- 
ally referred  to  a  concrete  object. 

Three  modes  or  degrees  of  abstract  representa- 
tions occur  in  the  progressive  exercise  of  the  intel- 
lectual faculty ;  these,  combined  with  the  special 
apprehensions  of  the  individual  memory,  and  with 
imaginative  types,  constitute  the  life  of  human 
thought,  and  are  the  conditions  by  which  we  attain 
to  rational  knowledge.  While  the  specific  mythical 
type  may  take  the  place  of  the  general  type  in  the 
logical  exercise  of  thought,  and  may  suffice  for  an 
imaginative  comprehension  of  the  system  of  the 
world,  the  abstract  conception  intervenes  in  the  daily 
necessity  for  communication  between  these  general 
mythical  types,  and  serves  to  cement  them  together, 
thus  rendering  the  commerce  of  ideas  among  men 
and  in  the  human  mind  more  easy. 

The  abstract  conceptions  which  are  formed  in  this 
way  may  be  divided  into  three  classes — physical, 
moral,  and  intellectual.  _o  begin  with  the  first ;  it 
is  impossible  for  human  speech  to  point  out  and 
define  a  subject  or  phenomenon  in  the  series  to  which 


140  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

it  belongs  by  resemblance,  identity,  or  analogy,  unless 
there  is  already  in  the  mind  a  conception  which  in- 
cludes the  general  qualities,  or  quality  proper  to  the 
series  of  similar  phenomena ;  this  is  essentially  an 
abstract  type,  but  it  primarily  assumes  a  concrete 
form.  I  cannot  say  that  anything  is  white  or 
heavy,  until  by  repetitions  of  the  same '  sensation  I 
have  been  able  to  combine  in  a  single  conception  the 
sensations  diffused  over  an  infinite  number  of  objects. 
The  genesis  of  these  conceptions  is  found  in  the 
comparative  explicit  judgment  which  depends  on  the 
memory  for  the  necessary  conditions  of  its  formation. 

The  typical  and  abstract  idea  of  white  has  not 
merely  a  nominal  value,  as  it  is  asserted  in  some 
schools  of  thought,  for  an  empty  term  could  express 
no  idea,  whereas  this  idea  is  perfectly  clear.  Neither 
is  it  a  real  thing,  but  rather  an  ideal  reality,  not  a 
pure  abstraction  of  the  spirit,  extracted,  so  to  speak, 
from  the  material  substance.  The  conception  of 
whiteness  formed  by  the  comparative  judgment  is 
limited  by  the  perception  of  the  concrete,  external 
fact  perceived  as  one  special  quality  among  all  other 
qualities  in  nature,  and  it  is  therefore  a  physiological 
fact  of  inward  consciousness. 

In  the  abstract  idea  of  white  or  whiteness  we  do 
not  only  picture  to  ourselves  a  quality  common  to 
many  things,  but  by  this  term,  and  by  the  idea  which 
corresponds  to  it,  the  same  sensation  is  actually  pre- 
sent to  our  inward  intuition,  or  the  same  quality  of 


INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  APPREHENSION.  141 

the  sensation  which  was  previously  generated  by  our 
external  senses  in  a  concrete  form.  Although,  there- 
fore, the  idea  is  generic,  the  sensation  itself  is  repre- 
sented to  the  mind  in  the  form  of  a  concrete  perception. 
It  is  not  concrete  in  the  sense  of  belonging  to  a  special 
object  or  definite  form,  as  it  is  presented  to  the  out- 
ward perception,  but  only  so  far  as  there  is  actually 
an  inward  and  physiological  sensation  of  whiteness, 
which  the  word  recalls  to  the  memory.  There  can  be 
no  mental  confusion  with  the  quality  of  red,  or  of  any 
colour,  when  I  speak  or  think  of  what  is  white. 

When  I  speak  or  think  of  any  object  as  white, 
I  and  others  perfectly  understand  what  is  meant,  and 
a  representation  of  this  quality  is  instantly  formed  in 
our  minds,  in  the  generic  type  which  was  gradually 
constituted  by  primitive  man  by  the  combination  of 
numerous  special  sensations,  obvious  to  the  sight, 
and  subsequently  expressed  in  speech. 

In  order  that  the  word  which  corresponds  to  the 
quality  may  have  a  given  sense,  it  is  necessary  to 
perceive  the  form  of  the  concrete  sensation  which 
gave  rise  to  it;  for  although  the  representation  is 
indefinite  or  generic,  that  is,  not  obvious  to  the  ex- 
ternal senses,  yet  it  is  not  physiologically  distinct 
from  the  sensation  of  the  quality  described ;  the 
perception  of  that  quality  is  present  by  the  aid  of 
memory  to  the  inner  consciousness. 

It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  physiological 
elements  of  consciousness  are  actually  contained  in 


142  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

so-called  abstract  ideas,  although  it  is  sometimes 
asserted  that  they  are  purely  spiritual  and  intellectual 
acts,  remote  from  every  physiological  process  of  fact 
and  sense.  An  actual  physiological  fact  (colour  in 
this  instance)  corresponds  to  the  idea  in  the  nervous 
centres,  and  reproduces  the  sensation  due  to  the  per- 
ception of  special  objects,  whose  physical  quality  of 
whiteness  we  have  perceived,  and  this  sensation  makes 
part  of  the  abstract,  or  rather  indefinite  conception. 

In  fact,  all  which  is  not  actually  present  to  the 
mind — and  the  present  is  an  infinitesimal  fraction 
of  knowledge — is  reproduced  by  the  memory,  and 
this  is  effected  by  the  molecular  movements  of  the 
human  brain,  and  by  what  may  be  called  the  ethereal 
modifications  which  took  place  when  the  sensations, 
perceptions,  and  acts  first  occurred.  If  the  cells 
vibrate,  and  the  organs  of  the  brain  are  affected  by 
the  recollection  of  past  ideas  and  acts,  just  as  when 
they  actually  occurred  (and  this  appears  from  Schiff's 
experiences  as  to  the  increase  of  the  brain  in  heat 
and  volume  during  dreams),  this  vibration  will  be 
still  more  marked  when  any  quality  which  affects 
our  senses  is  reproduced  in  the  mind. 

The  particular  form  of  the  quality  as  it  appears  in 
a  definite  object  is  certainly  wanting  in  the  abstract 
conception ;  it  remains  in  the  first  stage  of  pure 
sensation,  like  a  spontaneous  act  of  observation,  and 
it  is  transformed  into  apprehension  by  the  mental 
faculty.  But  the  inward  consciousness  of  the  quality 


INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  APPREHENSION.  143 

is  actual,  psychical,  and  physical.  The  abstract 
conception  is  a  psychical  symbol  composed  of  idea 
and  consciousness,  or  rather  of  act  and  consciousness  ; 
both  are  fused  into  a  logical  conception  of  indefinite 
form,  yet  consisting  of  real  elements,  that  is,  of 
cerebral  motions  and  of  sensations. 

Estimated  according  to  its  genuine  value,  there- 
fore, an  abstract  conception  may  be  divided  into  three 
classes — physical,  moral,  and  intellectual.  Whiteness 
and  colours  in  general,  levity  and  weight,  hardness, 
sound,  and  the  like  qualities,  are  all  abstract  types 
which  belong  to  the  physical  class.  Goodness,  virtue, 
love,  hatred,  and  anger  must  be  assigned  to  the  moral 
class ;  and  equality,  identity,  number,  and  quantity, 
etc.,  to  the  intellectual  class.  Such  abstract  concep- 
tions, without  which  human  speech  would  be  im- 
possible, did  not  in  the  case  of  primitive  man  take 
the  explicit  and  reflex  form  in  which  they  are 
presented  by  mature  science,  and  it  is  expedient  to 
inquire  what  character  they  really  assumed  in  the 
spontaneous  exercise  of  thought  and  speech. 

There  is  certainly  a  difference  between  the  mythical 
and  specific  types  and  the  intrinsic  value  of  these 
abstract  conceptions.  The  former  served  for  the  caus- 
ative interpretation  of  the  living  system  of  the  world, 
and  had  a  superstitious  influence  on  the  moral  and 
social  progress  of  mankind;  the  latter  were  merely 
the  instrument  of  thought  and  speech,  and  were  in 
spontaneous  and  daily  use.  But  in  spite  of  this 


144  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

difference,  there  was  no  radical  and  substantial  diver- 
sity in  the  genesis  of  such  conceptions,  and  the 
fundamental  elements  of  perception  were  common  to 
both.  While  the  form  varied,  the  primitive  law  and 
genesis  remained  the  same. 

We  have  shown  that  the  perception  of  the  pheno- 
menon, as  it  affects  the  inner  and  external  conscious- 
ness, necessarily  involves  the  form  of  the  subject,  and 
the  causative  power  which  animates  that  form,  and 
this  becomes  the  intellectual  source  of  special  and 
specific  myths.  These  myths,  whether  they  are 
derived  from  physical  or  moral  phenomena,  are  sub- 
sequently so  completely  impersonated  as  to  be  resolved 
into  a  perfectly  human  form.  In  the  case  of  the 
abstract  conceptions  necessary  in  speech,  such  anthro- 
pomorphism does  not  generally  occur ;  yet  we  see  that 
sensation  and  a  physiological  genesis  are  inseparable 
from  an  abstract  conception.  Without  such  sensation 
of  the  phenomenon  these  conceptions  would  be  unin- 
telligible to  the  percipient  himself  and  to  others.  In 
direct  sensation,  the  phenomenon  is  external,  and 
when  it  is  reproduced  in  the  mind  the  same  cerebral 
motions  to  which  that  sensation  was  due  are  repeated. 

It  is  an  absolute  law,  not  only  of  the  human  mind 
but  of  animal  intelligence,  that  the  phenomenon 
should  generate  the  implicit  idea  of  a  thing  and  cause, 
and  the  necessity  of  this  psychical  law  is  also  apparent 
in  the  abstract  conception  of  some  given  quality.  If 
the  effect  is  not  identical,  it  is  at  any  rate  analogous. 


INTKINSIC   LAW   OF   APPKEHENSION.  145 

Primitive  man  did  not  take  whiteness,  for  example, 
considered  in  itself,  to  be  an  active  subject,  like  the 
specific  natural  myths  which  we  have  mentioned, 
but  he  regarded  it  as  something  which  had  a  real 
existence,  and  he  might  under  certain  circumstances 
invest  it  with  deliberate  power. 

If  we  have  fully  grasped  this  deep  faculty  of  the 
mind,  and  the  spontaneous  animation  of  all  pheno- 
mena, both  external  and  internal,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  understand  the  reappearance  of  the  same 
law  in  abstract  conceptions.  The  sensation  of  the 
quality,  and  consequently  of  the  phenomenon,  is 
reproduced,  and  the  phenomenon  generates  the  im- 
plicit idea  of  a  subject,  and  therefore  of  a  possible 
cause  in  given  circumstances.  If  such  a  law  did  not 
produce  upon  man  the  mythical  personification  of  his 
primitive  abstract  conceptions,  at  any  rate  it  involved 
a  belief  in  the  objective  reality  of  these  conceptions, 
which  were  implicitly  held  to  possess  an  independent 
existence. 

Among  prehistoric  and  savage  races,  who  were 
ignorant  of  the  laws  and  nature  of  cosmic  forces,  the 
greater  or  less  weight  of  a  thing  did  not  involve  any 
examination  of  the  mass  of  a  phenomenon,  its  dis- 
tance, and  the  general  laws  of  gravity ;  this  differential 
weight  was  itself  believed  to  be  a  thing  which  acted, 
and  sometimes  deliberately  acted  in  different  ways  on 
the  different  objects  which  they  were  comparing  at 
the  moment.  In  other  words,  gravity  was  regarded 


146  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

as  something  which  existed  independently  of  the 
bodies  in  which  its  properties  were  manifested. 

This  estimate  of  gravity,  as  an  abstract  quality  or 
property,  might  be  repeated  of  all  other  physical  pro- 
perties, as  well  as  of  those  abstract  conceptions  which 
are  moral  and  intellectual.  Goodness  came  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  type,  varying  indeed  in  different  peoples, 
according  to  their  race,  and  their  local,  moral,  and  civil 
conditions,  but  as  a  type  which  corresponded  to  the 
mutual  relations  of  men,  and  to  their  superstitions 
and  religious  beliefs  as  to  the  nature  of  things. 

In  this  case  also  the  abstract  conception  of  the. 
good,  the  fitting,  the  useful,  which  constantly  recur  in 
popular  speech  are  regarded,  not  as  mythical  powers 
personified  in  a  human  form,  but  as  having  a  real 
existence  in  nature,  as  something  extrinsic  to  the 
person  or  thing  in  which  they  are  manifested,  and  as 
acting  upon  them  as  a  living  and  causative  power. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  all  other  abstract  concep- 
tions. Hence,  in  addition  to  the  formation  of  cosmic, 
moral,  and  intellectual  myths,  fashioned  after  the 
pattern  of  humanity,  logical  conceptions  arose  in  the 
mind,  necessary  for  the  exercise  of  human  speech 
and  for  a  man's  converse  with  himself,  and  these 
were  regarded  as  having  a  real  existence,  mani- 
fested in  things  and  persons  and  in  the  system  of 
nature.  These  entities  have  their  origin  in  the  same 
faculty  as  the  others ;  in  every  conception  presented 
to  the  mind  and  reproducing  the  primitive  sensation 


INTRINSIC   LAW   OF   APPREHENSION.  147 

or  emotion,  the  external  or  internal  phenomenon 
implicitly  generates  the  subject,  and  with  this  the 
cause.  These  abstract  conceptions  did  not  and  do 
not  result  in  the  anthropomorphism  of  phenomena  or 
ideas,  but  are  transformed  into  entities  which  have  a 
real  existence. 

We  must  also  observe  the  mobility  and  inter- 
changeableness  of  these  fetishes,  myths,  and  imaginary 
entities  in  the  primitive  times  of  the  human  race,  and 
even  in  later  ages ;  at  one  time  the  fetish  acts  as  a 
myth,  at  another  the  myth  has  a  logical  existence. 
Of  this  there  are  many  proofs  in  the  traditions  of 
ancient  peoples,  in  the  intellectual  life  of  modern 
savages,  and  in  that  of  the  civilized  nations  to  which 
we  ourselves  belong.  The  historic  development  does 
not  always  follow  the  regular  course  we  have  just  de- 
scribed, although  these  are,  in  a  strictly  logical  sense, 
the  necessary  stages  of  intellectual  evolution.  Histori- 
cally they  are  often  jostled  and  confounded  together  by 
the  lively  susceptibility  and  alacrity  of  the  imagination 
of  primitive  man,  and  it  is  precisely  this  characteristic 
which  makes  these  marvellous  ages  so  fertile  in  fanci- 
ful creations,  and  also  in  scientific  intuitions. 

Any  one  who  is  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the 
ancient  literature  of  civilized  peoples,  and  with  the 
legends  of  those  which  are  rude  and  savage;  any  one 
who  has  reflected  on  the  spontaneous  value  of  words 
and  conceptions  in  modern  speech,  must  often  have 
observed  how  myth  assumed  the  form  of  a  logical 


148  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

conception  as  time  went  on ;  and  conversely  how  the 
logical  entity  assumed  the  form  of  a  myth,  and  how 
interchangeable  they  are.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
myths  have  been  so  far  adapted  to  the  necessities  of 
speech  as  to  be  transmuted  into  verbs;  libare  from 
liber,  which  perhaps  came  in  its  turn  from  liba,  a 
propitiatory  cake,  while  Libra  was  the  genius  who  in 
mythological  ages  presided  over  fruitfulness  and 
plenty.  So  again  juvare,  from  the  root  jov,  after  it 
had  already  been  used  for  the  anthropomorphic  Jove. 
We  find  in  Plautus  the  verb  summanare,  from  the  god 
Summanus,  the  nocturnal  sky.  Not  only  verbs  but 
adjectives  were  derived  in  common  speech  from  the 
mythical  names  of  gods;  from  Genius,  a  multiform 
and  universal  power  in  ancient  Latin  mythology,  we 
have  genialis,  and  hence  the  expressions  genialis  lectus, 
genialis  homo,  genialis  hiems,  and  poets  and  philo- 
sophers apply  the  same  epithet  even  to  the  elements 
and  the  stars.  On  the  other  hand,  Virtue,  Faith, 
Piety,  and  other  like  moral  conceptions,  first  regarded 
as  real,  yet  impersonal  entities,  were  transformed  into 
a  perfect  myth,  and  into  human  forms  worthy  of 
divine  worship. 

Even  in  our  own  time,  and  not  only  among  the  un- 
educated people  but  among  men  of  high  culture — when 
they  do  not  pause  to  consider  the  real  value  of  words 
in  the  familiarity  of  daily  conversation — any  one  who 
seeks  for  the  direct  meaning  of  the  terms  he  uses  will 
admit  the  truth  of  what  I  say.  We  constantly  ascribe 


INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  APPREHENSION.  149 

a  real  existence  to  abstract  conceptions  and  qualities, 
treating  them  as  subjects  which  have  a  substantial 
being,  and  which  act  for  the  most  part  with  deliberate 
purpose,  although  they  are  not  transformed  as  in  the 
case  of  myths  into  human  shapes. 

In  abstract,  intellectual  conceptions,  such  as  those 
of  equality,  distance,  number,  and  the  like,  the  same 
faculty  and  the  same  elements  are  at  work  as  in  those 
which  express  physical  and  moral  qualities.  These 
conceptions,  which  as  civilization  advances  ultimately 
become  mere  intellectual  symbols  necessary  for  logical 
speech,  are  at  first  formed  by  the  actual  comparison 
of  things,  and  therefore  by  the  aid  of  the  senses. 
Even  if  we  were  to  assert  with  some  schools  of  thought 
that  they  were  formed  a  priori  in  the  mind,  sensation 
would  still  be  necessary  as  the  occasion  of  displaying 
them.  When  such  conceptions  are  expressed  in  words 
there  is  a  physiological  recurrence  to  the  mind  of 
what  may  be  termed  the  shadow  of  previous  sensations 
or  perceptions,  which  are  united  in  an  intellectual  type 
to  give  rise  to  such  conceptions.  And  in  the  appear- 
ance of  this  phenomenal  basis,  thought  unconsciously 
fulfils  the  fundamental  law  of  assuming,  or  I  might 
say  of  actually  feeling,  the  reality  of  the  subject. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  speaking  of  these 
entities  created  by  the  intellect,  I  refer  to  the  primitive 
ages  of  human  thought,  or  to  the  notions  of  ignorant 
people,  and  also  to  the  spontaneous  language  of 
educated  men,  who  in  ordinary  conversation  do  not 


150  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

pause  to  consider  the  simple  and  logical  value  of  their 
expressions.  We  are  only  giving  the  natural  history 
of  the  intelligence,  which  necessarily  excludes  the 
analytic  and  refining  processes  of  rational  science. 
An  educated  man  will,  for  example,  say  or  write 
that  identity  is  a  most  important  principle  of  logic 
as  well  as  that  of  contradiction,  although  he  is  per- 
fectly aware  that  such  expressions  only  imply  an 
abstract  form  of  cognition ;  he  follows  the  natural  and 
primitive  process  of  the  intellect,  and  for  the  moment 
expresses  these  conceptions  as  if  they  were  real 
entities  in  the  organism  of  science  and  of  the  world. 
Any  one  may  find  a  proof  of  this  fact  in  himself, 
if  he  will  consider  the  ideas  immediately  at  work 
in  his  mind  at  the  moment  of  expressing  similar 
conceptions.  And  if  this  is  true  of  those  who  pursue 
a  rational  course  of  thought,  it  is  true  in  a  still 
more  imaginative  and  mythical  sense  at  the  dawn 
of  intellectual  life,  both  among  modern  savages  and 
in  the  case  of  the  ignorant  common  people. 

Let  us  briefly  sum  up  the  truth  we  have  sought  to 
establish.  Special  fetishes  first  had  their  origin  by 
the  innate  exercise  and  historical  development  of  the 
human  intelligence,  by  the  necessary  conditions  of 
the  perception,  and  of  subsequent  apprehension ; 
these  were  only  the  animation  of  each  external  or 
internal  phenonemon,  as  it  occurred,  and  this  was 
the  primitive  origin  of  myth,  both  in  man  and 
animals.  In  the  case  of  animals  the  fetish  or  special 


INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  APPREHENSION.  151 

myth  is  transitory,  appearing  and  disappearing  in 
accordance  with  his  actual  perceptions;  while  in  man 
there  is  a  persistent  image  of  the  fetish  in  his  mind, 
to  which  he  timidly  ascribes  the  same  power  as  to  the 
thing  itself.  The  specific  types  of  these  fetishes  natur- 
ally arise  from  the  mental  combination  of  images, 
emotions,  and  ideas  into  a  whole,  and  these  imperson- 
ations generate  the  various  forms  of  anthropomorphic 
polytheism.  As  the  synthetic  mental  process  goes 
on,  these  varied  forms  of  polytheism  are  gradually 
united  in  one  general  but  still  anthropomorphic  form, 
which  is  commonly  called  monotheism. 

In  addition  to  these  spontaneous  and  anthropomor- 
phic myths,  which  serve  for  the  fanciful  explanation 
of  the  system  of  the  world,  and  the  moral  ideas  of 
social  and  individual  life,  other  myths  arise  which 
are  not  anthropomorphic,  but  which  ascribe  a  sub- 
stantial existence  to  abstract  conceptions  of  physical, 
moral,  or  intellectual  matters ;  conceptions  necessary 
for  the  formulation  of  human  speech.  For  although 
primitive  languages,  of  which  we  have  some  examples 
remaining  in  the  language  of  savage  peoples,  are 
almost  inconceivably  concrete,  yet  speech  is  im- 
possible without  expressions  of  form,  or  abstract 
conceptions  which  are  moulded  and  adapted  to  that 
intuition  of  the  relations  of  things  which  is  always 
taking  place  in  the  mind.*  The  mythical  human 

*  In  Chinese,  for  example,  and  in  many  other  languages,  there  are 
many  words  to  indicate  the  tail  of  a  fish,  a  bird,  etc.,  but  no  word  for  a 


152  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

form  does  not  indeed  appear  in  these  conceptions, 
but  a  substantial  entity  is  involved  in  them  which 
sometimes,  as  we  have  seen,  may  even  assume  the 
aspect  of  a  complete  myth. 

A  careful  analysis  of  the  process  of  our  intelli- 
gence has  shown  that  this  habitual  personification  of 
the  phenomenon  or  abstract  conception  is  due  to  the 
innate  faculty  of  perception,  since  the  appearance  of 
any  phenomenon  necessarily  produces  the  idea  of  a 
subject  actuated  by  deliberate  purpose ;  this  law  is 
equally  constant  in  the  case  of  animals,  in  whom, 
however,  it  does  not  issue  in  a  rational  conception. 
The  objection  of  ourselves  into  nature,  the  personifi- 
cation of  its  phenomena  and  myths  in  general,  are 
common  to  all,  while  they  take  a  more  fanciful  form 
in  the  case  of  primitive  man ;  they  are  the  constant 
and  necessary  result  of  the  perception  of  external 
and  internal  phenomena.  This  personification  in- 
cludes moral  and  intellectual  as  well  as  physical 
phenomena,  and  it  always  proceeds  in  the  same  way, 
from  special  phenomena  to  specific  types,  and  hence 
to  abstract  perceptions. 

In  this  way  we  have  established  the  important  fact 

tail  in  general.  Even  an  intelligent  savage  does  not  accurately 
distinguish  between  the  subjective  and  the  objective,  between  the 
imaginary  and  the  real;  this  is  the  most  important  result  of  a 
scientific  education.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture  ;  Steinhauser,  Religion 
des  Negres;  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  World.  The  objective  form  of  con- 
ceptions and  emotions,  which  are  subsequently  transformed  into  spirits, 
are  found  among  the  superior  races  of  our  day,  in  the  Christian 
hierarchy  of  angels,  in  popular  tradition,  and  in  spiritualism. 


INTRINSIC  LAW  OF  APPREHENSION.  153 

that  the  primitive  personification  of  every  external  or 
internal  phenomenon,  the  origin  of  all  myths,  religions, 
and  superstitions,  is  accomplished  by  the  same 
necessary  psychical  and  physical  law  as  that  which 
produces  sensation.  That  is,  men,  as  well  as  animals, 
begin  by  thinking  and  feeling  in  a  mythical  way, 
owing  to  the  intrinsic  constitution  of  their  intellec- 
tual life  ;  and  while  animals  never  emerge  from  these 
psychical  conditions,  men  are  gradually  emancipated 
from  them,  as  they  become  able  to  think  more 
rationally,  thus  finding  redemption,  truth,  and  liberty 
by  means  of  science. 

We  now  propose  to  unite  in  a  single  conception 
this  necessity  of  our  intellect,  at  once  the  product  and 
the  cause  of  perception,  and  of  the  spontaneous  vivifi- 
cation  of  phenomena  ;  since  the  law  may  be  expressed 
in  a  compendious  form. 

Both  in  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  myths, 
and  in  the  substantial  entity  infused  into  abstract 
conceptions,  the  external  or  internal  phenomenon 
immediately  generates  the  idea  of  a  subject,  since  it 
is  a  fundamental  law  of  our  mind  to  entify  (entificare) 
every  object  of  our  perception,  emotion,  or  conscious- 
ness. If  any  one  should  object  to  this  neologism,  in 
spite  of  its  adequate  expression  of  the  original  function 
of  the  intelligence,  we  reply  that  the  use  and  necessity 
of  the  verb  identify  have  been  accepted  in  the  neo-Latin 
tongues,  and  therefore  entify,  which  has  the  same  root 
and  form,  can  hardly  be  rejected,  since  it,  like  the 


154  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

former,  signifies  an  actual  process  of  thought.  We 
therefore  adopt  the  word  without  scruple,  since  new 
words  have  often  been  coined  before  when  they  were 
required  to  express  new  conceptions  and  theories. 

The  primitive  and  constant  act  of  all  animals, 
including  man,  when  external  o'r  internal  sensation 
has  opened  to  them  the  immense  field  of  nature,  is  that 
of  entifying  the  object  of  sensation,  or,  in  a  word,  all 
phenomena.  Such  entification  is  the  result  of  spon- 
taneous necessity,  by  the  law  of  the  intrinsic  faculty 
of  perception ;  it  is  not  the  result  of  reflection,  but  it 
is  immediate,  innate,  and  inevitable.  It  is  an  eternal 
law  of  the  evolution  of  the  intelligence,  like  all  those 
which  rule  the  order  of  the  world. 

We  do  not  only  proclaim  in  this  fact  a  law  of 
psychological  importance,  but  also  the  origin  of  myths, 
and  in  a  certain  sense  of  science,  since  myth  is 
developed  by  the  same  methods  as  science.  These 
two  streams  flow  from  one  and  the  same  source,  since 
the  entification  of  phenomena  is  proper  both  to  myth 
and  science ;  the  former  entifies  sensations,  and  the 
latter  ideas,  since  science  by  reversion  to  law  and 
rational  conception  finally  attains  to  the  primitive 
entity.  \  And  finally,  if  an  imaginative  idea  of  a  cause 
is  active  in  myth  from  the  first,  the  conception  of 
/  a  cause  is  equally  necessary  to  science.  It  is  her 
business  to  explain  the  reason  of  things,  and  in  what 
they  rationally  consist : 

•*  Felix  qui  potuit  rerum  cognoscere  causas." 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

THE   HISTORICAL   EVOLUTION   OF   MYTH   AND    SCIENCE. 

IN  the  foregoing  pages  we  have  reached  the  primordial 
fact  of  our  psychical  and  physical  nature,  in  which, 
as  it  appears  to  us,  both  myth  and  science  have 
their  origin.  After  first  considering  the  animal  king- 
dom as  a  whole,  we  have  seen  that  the  interaction 
between  external  phenomena  and  the  consciousness 
of  an  organism  results  in  the  spontaneous  vivification 
of  the  phenomenon  in  question,  so  that  the  origin  of 
the  mythical  representation  of  nature  is  found  in  the 
innate  faculty  of  animal  perception. 

Nor  could  it  be  otherwise.  The  internal  activity 
and  intrinsic  sense  of  conscious  and  deliberate  life 
which  inspires  animals  and  men,  while  the  latter  are 
still  ignorant  of  the  rational  order  of  things,  is 
necessarily  reflected  both  in  the  external  objects  of 
perception  and  in  the  internal  emotions,  as  if  they 
were  operating  causes  independent  of  the  will  of  the 
percipient.  It  is  impossible  for  an  animal,  which 
is  unable  by  voluntary  observation  to  make  any 


156  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

analytic  distinction  between  the  subject  and  the 
object,  and  their  respective  effects,  to  consider  such 
phenomena  as  mechanical  entities,  subject  to  neces- 
sary and  eternal  laws.  The  animal  therefore  accepts 
the  idea  suggested  by  his  spontaneous  and  subjective 
nature,  that  these  phenomena  are  alive.  Grass, 
fruits,  plants,  water,  the  movement  of  material 
bodies,  ordinary  and  extraordinary  meteors,  all  are 
implicitly  apprehended  by  him  as  subjects  endowed 
with  will  and  purpose  after  the  manner  of  mankind. 
Nor  can  the  living  subjectivity  of  the  phenomenon 
ever  be  gauged  by  the  animal  in  whom  the  deliberate 
power  of  reflection  is  wanting.  His  life  is  conse- 
quently passed  in  a  world  of  living  subjects,  not  of 
phenomena  and  laws  which  mechanically  act  to- 
gether ;  it  is,  so  to  speak,  a  permanent  metaphor. 

Man  himself,  so  far  as  his  animal  nature  is  con- 
cerned, acts  in  the  same  way,  and  although  he  subse- 
quently attains  to  the  exercise  of  reasoning  powers  in 
virtue  of  the  psychical  reduplication  of  himself,  the 
primitive  faculty  persists,  and  hence  comes  the 
mythical  creation  of  a  peculiar  world  of  conceptions 
which  give  rise  to  all  superstitions,  mythologies,  and 
religions.  This  is  also  the  process  of  science  itself, 
as  far  as  the  classifying  method  and  intrinsic  logical 
form  are  concerned.  The  historical  source  of  the  two 
great  streams  of  the  intellect,  the  mythical  and  the 
scientific,  is  found  in  the  primitive  act  of  entifying 
the  phenomenon  presented  to  the  senses. 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   157 

We  must  briefly  describe  the  evolution  of  these  two 
mythical  and  scientific  faculties  of  the  mind ;  we  must 
investigate  the  mode  and  cause  of  their  divergence 
from  a  common  source,  through  what  transformations 
they  pass,  in  order  to  see  in  what  way  the  one 
is  gradually  dried  up,  while  the  other  increases  in 
volume  and  force.  The  reader  must  forgive  us  if 
we  use  some  repetition  in  developing  a  subject  on 
which  we  have  already  touched,  since  without  such 
repetition  the  present  historical  explanation  would 
be  obscure. 

The  first  stage  of  knowledge  consists  in  the  obser- 
vation of  the  things  which  surround  us,  and  this  first 
stage,  which  is  necessary  also  in  science,  is  the 
common  property  of  animals.  Their  observation  o.f 
themselves  and  of  external  things  is  psychologically  and 
physiologically  the  same  as  that  of  man,  and  in  both 
cases  there  is  a  subjective  animation  of  the  phenomena 
themselves.  The  primitive  source  of  science  in  its 
observation  of  phenomena  was  the  same  as  that  of 
myth  and  of  the  special  fetish;  without  such  obser- 
vation it  would  have  had  no  existence. 

In  immediate  succession  to  this  primitive  fact, 
which  is  common  to  the  whole  animal  kingdom,  there 
.  arose — if  we  consider  the  general  process  without 
the  limitations  of  circumstances,  places,  time,  and  a 
thousand  accidents — two  kinds  of  faculties  which  were 
identical  in  form,  although  they  had  different  effects, 
and  produced  opposite  results.  For  in  the  case  of 


158  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

mythical  entification  the  tendency  to  impersonation 
was  always  increasing  and  becoming  more  distinctly 
zoomorphic  and  anthropomorphic,  and  in  this  form  it 
was  crystallized  or  mummified,  while  science  on  the 
other  hand  was  always  enlarging  its  sphere  and 
dissipating  the  first  mythical  form  of  its  conception, 
until  nothing  was  left  but  a  purely  rational  idea. 

When  this  evolution  takes  place  in  peoples  and 
races  which  are  incapable  of  improvement,  or  have  a 
limited  capacity  for  advanced  civilization,  the  faculty 
of  myth  remains  in  the  ascendant ;  and  as  past  and 
present  history  shows,  mythical  stagnation  and  in- 
tellectual barrenness  may  follow,  until  intellectual 
development  is  arrested  and  even  destroyed.  If  on 
the  other  hand  the  evolution  takes  place  in  peoples 
and  races  capable  of  indefinite  civilization,  myth 
gradually  disappears  and  science  shines  forth  vic- 
toriously. 

Even  in  historical  and  civilized  races  the  two 
cycles  go  on  together,  since  while  robust  intellects 
throw  off  as  they  advance  the  mythical  shell  in  which 
they  were  first  inclosed,  the  ignorant  masses  continue 
their  devotions  to  fetishes  and  myths,  which  they 
can  infuse  even  into  the  grandest  religious  teaching. 
They  perhaps  might  also  perish,  crystallized  in  their 
miserable  superstitions,  unless,  in  virtue  of  the  race 
to  which  they  belong,  the  nobler  minds  were  gradu- 
ally to  succeed  in  illuminating  and  raising  them 
into  a  purer  atmosphere.  In  our  Aryan  race  and 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   159 

in  our  own  country  we  have  all  seen  the  ideas 
of  Christianity  transformed  into  the  earlier  fetishes 
and  pagan  myths ;  the  saints  are  merely  substituted 
for  the  gods  and  demi-gods,  for  the  deities  of  groves, 
of  the  sea  and  of  war,  as  they  are  found  in  ancient 
mythology.  The  legends  of  the  saints  and  of  Christ 
himself  are  grafted  on  similar  legends  of  the  ancient 
religions  of  Greece  and  Kome,  and  Paradise  has 
assumed  the  appearance  and  form  of  Olympus.  The 
paintings  still  extant  in  the  catacombs  of  Korae,  which 
mark  the  transformation  of  the  old  into  the  new 
religion,  speak  plainly  enough  by  their  symbols  and 
figures. 

Myth  is  logically  identical  with  the  scientific 
process  in  its  intrinsic  character;  starting  from  a 
vague  subjectivity  which  gradually  assumes  a  human 
shape,  the  first  intellectual  vitality  is  lost,  unless  it 
is  revived  by  a  higher  impulse.  Science,  on  the  other 
hand,  which  begins  in  myth,  gradually  divests  this 
subjectivity  of  its  anthropomorphic  character,  until 
pure  reason  is  attained,  and  with  this  the  power  of 
indefinite  progress. 

The  theory  which  has  hitherto  been  generally 
accepted  by  mythologists,  even  by  those  who  profess 
Comte's  great  principle  of  historical  evolution,  is  that 
man  began  with  special  fetishes,  that  these  were  com- 
bined in  comprehensive  types  to  form  polytheistic 
hierarchies,  and  hence  he  rose  by  an  analogous  pro- 
cess to  a  more  or  less  vague  conception  of  monotheism. 

8 


160  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

This  theory,  true  as  to  the  principal  forms  which 
myth  successively  assumes,  is  not  accurate  with 
respect  to  the  stages  of  development,  and  it  is  also 
erroneous  in  some  particulars  of  the  actual  history 
of  the  various  mythologies  of  different  peoples. 

In  the  early  chapters  of  this  work  we  have  briefly 
touched  on  such  a  development,  and  the  reader  must 
pardon  us  for  returning  to  the  subject,  now  that  we 
have  to  give  an  historical  account  of  the  process  of 
evolution.  In  fact,  the  fetish,  in  the  general  sense 
of  the  term,  is  not  the  first  form  of  myth  which  is 
revealed  in  the  dawn  of  human  life.  In  order  to 
estimate  its  positive  value,  it  is  necessary  to  analyze 
such  a  conception  with  greater  accuracy,  and  then 
to  verify  it  historically  with  the  help  of  the  science  of 
ethnology. 

The  first  manifestations  of  mythical  ideas  must  be 
considered  in  man  as  an  animal ;  that  is,  as  the  result 
of  his  spontaneous  intercourse  with  the  world,  in- 
dependently of  the  psychical  faculty  peculiar  to  him- 
self, after  he  had  acquired  by  subsequent  evolution 
of  mind  and  body  the  faculty  and  habit  of  reflection. 
This  first  stage  does  not  involve  any  definite  fetish, 
that  is,  an  immediate  belief  in  a  special  object  which 
exerts  its  influence  on  the  human  soul,  even  when 
it  is  remote  and  unseen :  such  a  fetish  is  a  secondary 
stage  in  human  development.  The  first  mythical 
representations  of  animals,  and  of  man,  so  far  as  his 
animal  nature  is  concerned,  are  not  confined  to  fixed 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   161 

objects,  which  can  he  retained  in  the  mind  as  opera- 
tive under  all  circumstances ;  they  are  indefinite,  and 
diffused  through  all  the  phenomena  which  are  succes- 
sively perceived  and  vivified.  The  unseen  wind  which 
rises  and  falls,  the  moving  cloud,  the  flash  of  lightning 
and  roar  of  thunder,  the  dawn,  the  rushing  torrent — 
when  any  of  these  things  are  perceived  by  animals 
and  primitive  men,  they  are  endowed  with  subjective 
life  and  are  supposed  to  act  with  deliberate  purpose ; 
and  this  is  the  first  form  of  myth.  But  when  they 
are  not  present  (I  here  speak  of  the  animal  nature  of 
man)  they  do  not  remain  in  the  mind  as  persistent 
beings  to  which  the  tribute  of  worship  inspired  by 
hope  or  fear  must  be  paid ;  these  and  other  pheno- 
mena only  inspire  such  sentiments  when  they  are 
actually  present. 

It  is  no  vain  distinction  which  I  make  between 
the  first  vague  and  intermittent  form  of  myth  sug- 
gested by  phenomena  actually  present,  and  that  of 
the  first  stage  of  fetish :  this  distinction  marks  the 
difference  between  the  mythical  representation  of 
animals  and  the  classifying  and  reflective  process 
peculiar  to  man. 

Comte  was  the  first  to  remark,  quite  incidentally, 
that  animals  might  sometimes  attain  to  the  idea  of 
a  fetish ;  Darwin  gave  the  instance  of  a  dog  which 
was  scared  by  the  movement  of  an  open  umbrella  in 
a  meadow,  although  he  remained  quiet  when  it  was 
unshaken  by  the  wind ;  and  Herbert  Spencer,  partly 


162  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

accepting  these  ideas,  adduces  two  somewhat  similar 
instances  of  the  behaviour  of  dogs.  It  seems  to  us 
that  these  great  men  are  mistaken  on  the  one  hand 
in  assuming  that  the  first  essential  origin  of  myth  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  on  the 
other  in  supposing  that  these  facts  have  only  an 
accidental  value,  and  that  animals  only  occasionally 
acquire  a  vague  consciousness  of  the  fetish. 

Those  readers  who  have  gone  with  us  so  far  will 
perceive  that  these  were  not  mere  accidents  of  rare 
occurrence  in  animal  life,  but  that  they  are  the 
necessary  effect  of  mythical  representation  in  its  first 
stage,  although  they  cannot  in  any  way  be  supposed 
to  be  produced  by  fetishism,  properly  so  called.  For 
if  the  dog  were  frightened  and  agitated  by  the  move- 
ment of  the  umbrella,  or  ran  away,  as  Herbert 
Spencer  tells  us,  from  the  stick  which  had  hurt  him 
while  he  was  playing  with  it,  it  was  because  an  un- 
usual movement  or  pain  produced  by  an  object  to 
which  habit  had  rendered  him  indifferent,  aroused  in 
the  animal  the  congenital  sense  of  the  intentional 
subjectivity  of  phenomena,  and  this  is  really  the 
first  stage  of  myth,  and  not  of  its.  subsequent  form  of 
fetishism. 

I  must  therefore  repeat  that  the  first  form  of 
myth  which  spontaneously  arises  in  man  as  an 
animal,  is  the  vague  but  intentional  subjectivity  of 
the  phenomena  presented  to  his  senses.  This  sub- 
jectivity is  sometimes  quiescent  and  implicit,  and 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   163 

sometimes  active,  in  which  case  it  may  arouse  the 
fear  of  evil,  or  the  hope  of  physical  pleasures. 

As  in  man  the  reflex  power  slowly  and  gradually 
grows — although  at  first  in  an  exclusively  empirical 
form — so  he  slowly  and  gradually  accepts  the  first 
form  of  fetishism,  which  consists  in  the  permanent 
and  fixed  individuation  of  a  phenomenon  or  object 
of  nature,  as  a  power  which  he  reflectively  believes 
to  be  the  artificer  of  good  or  evil. 

In  this  stage  it  is  no  longer  the  phenomenon 
actually  present  which  arouses  the  apprehension  of 
an  intentional  subjectivity,  while  its  image  and 
efficacy  disappear  with  the  sensible  object ;  the  phe- 
nomenon, or  the  inanimate  or  animate  form,  is  reflec- 
tively retained  by  the  memory,  in  which  it  appears  as 
-a  malignant  or  benignant  power.  In  a  word,  the  first 
stage  of  fetishism,  which  is  the  second  form  of  the 
evolution  of  myth,  is  the  universal  and  primitive 
,  sense  of  myth  in  nature,  which  man  alone  is  capable 
•of  applying  permanently  to  some  given  phenonemon, 
such  as  wind,  rain,  and  the  like,  or  lakes,  volcanoes, 
and  rocks,  and  these  remain  fixed  in  the  mind  as 
powers  of  good  or  evil.  In  the  earlier  stage  of  myth 
the  scene  is  constantly  changing,  while  in  the  latter, 
certain  objects  or  phenomena  remain  fixed  in  the 
memory,  exciting  the  same  emotions  whether  they 
are  present  or  absent,  and  to  this  consciousness 
we  may  trace  the  dawn  of  worship. 

Ethnography  affords  plain  proofs  of  the  fetishism 


164  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

which  preceded  the  civilization  of  many  peoples,  and 
among  those  which  still  remain  in  the  stage  of 
fetishism  we  can  trace  the  primitive  form  of  a  vague 
impersonation  of  natural  objects  and  phenomena.* 

As  we  have  already  seen,  every  animal  and  un- 
familiar object  is  in  this  first  stage  of  fetishism  re- 
garded as  the  external  covering  of  a  spiritual  power 
which  has  assumed  what  is  believed  to  be  the  prim- 
ordial form  of  the  fetish ;  this  fetish  takes  the  place 
of  the  natural  phenomenon,  and  is  believed  to  be 
capable  of  exercising  a  direct  subjectivity  which  is 
vague  but  perfectly  real. 

We  pass  from  this  first  form  of  fetish  to  the  second, 
namely  to  the  veneration  of  objects,  animals,  plants, 
and  the  like,  in  which  an  extrinsic  power  is  supposed 
to  be  incarnated.  Many  ages  elapsed  before  man 
attained  to  this  second  stage  of  fetishism,  since  it  was 
necessarily  preceded  by  a  further  and  reflex  elaboration 
of  myth,  namely,  the  genesis  of  a  belief  in  spirits. 

Herbert  Spencer  and  Tylor  are  among  the  writers 
who  have  given  a  masterly  description  of  this  phase 
of  the  human  intellect,  and  history  and  ethnography 

*  Fetishism  may  be  observed  in  the  civilized  Aryan  races,  but  still 
more  plainly  among  the  Chinese  and  cognate  races,  among  the 
Peruvians,  Mexicans,  etc.  Castren,  in  his  Finnische  Mythologie, 
says  that  we  find  extraordinary  instances  of  the  lowest  stage  of 
fetishism  among  the  Samoeides,  who  directly  worship  all  natural 
objects  in  themselves.  The  Finns,  who  are  comparatively  civilized 
heathens,  have  attained  to  a  higher  phase  of  belief.  But  numerous 
examples,  in  every  part  of  the  world,  will  occur  to  the  intelligent 
reader. 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.    165 

have  confirmed  the  accuracy  of  their  researches  and 
conclusions.  The  shadow  cast  by  a  man's  own  body, 
the  reflection  of  images  in  the  water,  natural  echoes, 
the  reappearance  of  images  of  the  departed  in  dreams, 
the  general  instinct  which  leads  man  to  vivify  all 
he  sees,  produced  what  may  be  called  the  reduplication 
of  man  in  himself,  and  the  savage's  primitive  theory 
of  the  human  soul.  Originally  this  soul  was  multi- 
plied into  all  these  natural  phenomena,  but  it  was 
afterwards  distributed  by  the  mythical  faculty  into 
three,  four,  five,  or  more  powers,  personifying  the 
spirits.  This  belief  in  a  multiplicity  of  souls  in  man 
is  not  only  still  extant  among  more  or  less  rude 
peoples  of  the  present  day  in  Asia,  Europe,  Africa, 
America,  and  Polynesia,  but  it  is  also  the  foundation 
of  the  belief  of  more  civilized  nations  on  the  subject, 
including  our  own  Aryan  race.  Birch  and  others 
observe  that  the  Egyptians  ascribed  four  spirits  to 
man — Ba,  Akba,  Ka,  and  Khaba.  The  Eomans  give 
three  : 

"  Bis  duo  sunt  homines,  manes,  caro,  spiritus,  umbra." 

The  same  belief  is  found  among  nearly  all  savages. 
The  Fijians  distinguish  between  the  spirit  which  is 
buried  with  the  dead  man  and  that  more  ethereal 
spirit  which  is  reflected  in  the  water  and  lingers  near 
the  place  where  he  died.  The  Malagasy  believe  in 
three  souls,  the  Algonquin  in  two,  the  Dakotan  in 
three,  the  native  of  Orissa  in  four. 

Since  a  fetish,  strictly  so  called,  is  the  incarnation 


166  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  a  power  in  some  given  object,  it  must  be  preceded 
by  this  rude  belief  in  spirits  and  shades.  Such  a 
complex  elaboration  takes  time,  since  it  involves  a 
previous  creation  of  powers,  spirits  or  the  shades 
of  men ;  these  lead  to  the  belief  in  independent  spirits 
of  various  origin,  which  people  the  heavens  and  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Hence  arose  the  belief  in  trans- 
migration, the  necessary  prelude  to  the  theory  of 
the  incarnation,  which  was  ultimately  constituted  by 
fetishism.  The  comparative  study  of  languages  shows 
that  including  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  races,  the 
belief  in  spirits  was  developed  in  all  peoples,  and  in 
all  of  them  we  also  find  a  belief  in  the  transmigration 
of  souls. 

The  transmigration  of  the  human  soul  was  first 
believed  to  take  place  in  the  body  of  a  new-born  child, 
since  at  the  moment  of  death  the  soul  of  the  dying 
person  entered  into  the  foetus.  The  Algonquins 
buried  the  corpses  of  their  children  by  the  way- 
side, so  that  their  souls  might  easily  enter  into  the 
bodies  of  the  pregnant  women  who  passed  that 
way.  Some  of  the  North  American  tribes  believed 
that  the  mother  saw  in  a  dream  the  dead  relation 
who  was  to  imprint  his  likeness  on  her  unborn  child. 
At  Calabar,  when  the  mother  who  has  lost  a  child 
gives  birth  to  another,  she  believes  that  the  dead 
child  is  restored  to  her.  The  natives  of  New  Guinea 
believe  that  a  son  who  greatly  resembles  his  dead 
father  has  inherited  his  soul.  Among  the  Yorubas 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   167 

the  new-born  child  is  greeted  with  the  words  :  "  Thou 
hast  returned  at  last !  "  The  same  ideas  prevail  among 
the  Lapps  and  Tartars,  as  well  as  among  the  negroes 
of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  Among  the  aborigines 
of  Australia  the  belief  is  widely  diffused  that  those 
who  die  as  black  return  as  white  men. 

Primitive  and  ignorant  peoples  perceive  no  precise 
distinction  between  man  and  brutes,  so  that,  as  Tylor 
observes,  they  readily  accept  the  belief  of  the  trans- 
migration of  the  human  soul  into  an  animal,  and  then 
into  inanimate  objects,  and  this  belief  culminates  in 
the  incarnation  of  the  true  fetish.  Among  some  of 
the  North  American  tribes  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are 
supposed  to  pass  into  bears.  An  Eskimo  widow  re- 
fused to  eat  seal's  flesh  because  she  supposed  that  her 
husband's  soul  had  migrated  into  that  animal. 
Others  have  imagined  that  the  souls  of  the  dead 
passed  into  birds,  beetles,  and  other  insects,  according 
to  their  social  rank  when  still  alive.  Some  African 
tribes  believe  that  the  dead  migrate  into  certain 
species  of  apes. 

By  pursuing  this  theory,  as  we  shall  presently 
show  more  fully,  the  transition  was  easy  to  the  incar- 
nation of  a  spirit,  whether  that  of  a  man  or  of  some 
other  being,  into  any  object  whatever,  which  was 
thereby  invested  with  beneficent  or  malignant  power. 
It  is  easy  to  show  that  in  this  second  stage  of  fetishism, 
which  some  have  believed  to  be  the  primitive  form  of 
myth,  there  would  be  no  further  progress  in  the 


168  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

mythical  elaboration  of  spirits,  their  mode  of  life,  their 
influence  and  possible  transmigrations.  This  elabo- 
ration is  indeed  a  product  of  the  mythical  faculty,  but 
in  a  rational  order ;  it  is  a  logical  process,  mythical 
in  substance,  but  purely  reflective  in  form.  For 
which  reason  it  was  impossible  for  animals  to  attain 
to  this  stage. 

Some  peoples  remained  in  this  phase  of  belief, 
while  others  advanced  to  the  ulterior  and  polytheistic 
form.  This  may  also  be  divided  into  two  classes  ; 
those  who  classify  and  ultimately  reduce  fetishes  into 
a  more  general  conception,  and  those  whose  concep- 
tion takes  an  anthropomorphic  form.  Let  us  ex- 
amine the  genesis  of  both  classes. 

When  the  popular  belief  in  spirits  had  free  de- 
velopment, the  number  of  spirits  and  powers  was 
countless,  as  many  examples  show.  To  give  a  single 
instance — the  Australians  hold  that  there  is  an  in- 
numerable multitude  of  spirits ;  the  heavens,  the 
earth,  every  nook,  grove,  bush,  spring,  crag,  and 
stone  are  peopled  with  them.  In  the  same  way, 
some  American  tribes  suppose  the  visible  and  in- 
visible world  to  be  filled  with  good  and  evil  spirits ; 
so  do  the  Khonds,  the  Negroes  of  New  Guinea,  and, 
as  Castren  tells  us,  the  Turanian  tribes  of  Asia  and 
Europe.  Consequently,  fetishes,  which  are  the  incar- 
nation of  these  spirits  in  some  object,  animate  or 
inanimate,  natural  or  artificial,  are  innumerable,  since 
primitive  man  and  modern  savages  have  created  such 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   169 

fetishes,  either  at  their  own  pleasure  or  with  the  aid 
of  their  priests,  magicians,  and  sorcerers. 

Man's  co-ordinating  faculty,  in  those  races 
which  are  capable  of  progressive  evolution,  does 
not  stop  short  at  this  inorganic  disintegration  of 
things ;  he  begins  a  process  of  classification  and,  at 
the  same  time,  of  reduction,  by  which  the  numerous 
fetishes  are,  by  their  natural  points  of  likeness  and 
unlikeness  in  character  and  form,  reduced  to  types 
and  classes,  which,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
comprise  in  themselves  the  qualities  of  all  the  par- 
ticular objects  of  the  same  species  which  are  diffused 
throughout  nature. 

By  this  spontaneous  process  of  human  thought, 
due  to  the  innate  power  of  reasoning,  man  has 
gradually  reduced  the  chaos  of  special  fetishes  to  a 
tolerably  systematic  order,  and  he  then  goes  on  to 
more  precise  simplification.  Let  us  try  to  trace  in 
this  historic  fact  the  classifying  process  at  the 
moment  when  the  first  form  of  polytheism  succeeds 
to  irregular  and  anarchical  fetishism. 

In  the  Sarnoan  islands,  a  local  god  is  wont  to 
appear  in  the  form  of  an  owl,  and  the  accidental 
discovery  of  a  dead  owl  would  be  deplored,  and  its 
body  would  be  buried  with  solemn  rites.  The  death 
of  this  particular  bird  does  not,  however,  imply  the 
death  of  the  god  himself,  since  the  people  believe 
him  to  be  incarnated  in  the. whole  species.  In  this 
fact  we  see  that  a  special  fetish  is  developed  into  a 


170  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

specific  form ;  thus  a  permanent  type  is  evolved  from 
special  appearances. 

Acosta  has  handed  down  to  us  another  "belief  of 
the  comparatively  civilized  Peruvians,  which  recalls 
the  primitive  genesis  of  their  mythical  ideas.  He 
•  says  that  the  shepherds  used  to  adore  various  stars, 
to  which  they  assigned  the  names  of  animals  ; 
stars  which  protected  men  against  the  respective 
animals  after  whom  they  were  called.  They  held 
the  general  belief  that  all  animals  whatever  had  a 
representative  in  heaven,  which  watched  over  their 
reproduction,  and  of  which  they  were,  so  to  speak, 
the  essence.  This  affords  another  example  of  the 
more  general  extension  and  classification,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  of  the  reduction  of  the  original  multi- 
tude of  fetishes. 

Some  of  the  North  American  Indians  asserted  that 
every  species  of  animal  had  an  elder  brother,  who 
was  the  origin  of  all  the  individuals  of  the  species. 
They  said,  for  example,  that  the  beaver,  which  was 
the  elder  brother  of  this  species  of  rodents,  was  as 
large  as  one  of  their  cabins.  Others  supposed  that 
all  kinds  of  animals  had  their  type  in  the  world  of 
souls,  a  manitu,  which  kept  guard  over  them.  Kal- 
ston,  in  his  "  Songs  of  the  Kussian  People,"  tells  us 
that  Buyan,  the  island  paradise  of  Kussian  mytho- 
logy, contains  a  serpent  older  than  all  others,  a 
larger  raven,  a  finer  queen  bee,  and  so  of  all  other 
animals.  Morgan,  in  his  work  upon  the  Iroquois, 


HISTOEICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   171 

observes  that  they  believe  in  a  spirit  or  god  of  every 
species  of  trees  and  plants. 

From  these  beliefs  and  facts,  drawn  from  different 
peoples  and  different  parts  of  the  world,  we  can 
understand  how  a  vague  and  inorganic  fetishism 
gradually  became  classified  into  types  which  consti- 
tute the  first  phase  of  polytheism.  The  logical  effort 
which  transformed  the  manifold  beliefs  into  types 
goes  on,  but  from  their' vague  and  indefinite  nature, 
not  only  the  power,  but  also  the  extrinsic  form  of 
man  is  easily  infused  into  them,  so  that  they  are 
invested  with  human  faculties  and  sensations,  and 
also  with  the  anthropomorphic  form  and  countenance 
of  which  we  have  spoken  elsewhere.  In  fact,  when 
the  special  fetishes  which  are  naturally  alike  are 
united  in  a  single  type,  the  object,  animal,  or  phe- 
nomenon which  corresponds  to  it  in  this  early 
stage  of  polytheism  is  no  longer  perceived,  but  a 
numen  is  evolved  from  this  type,  which  has  not  only 
human  power,  but  a  human  form ;  and  hence  follow 
the  specific  idols  of  serpents,  birds,  and  all  natural 
phenomena,  in  which  the  primitive  fetish  has  been 
incarnated.* 

In  this  second  stage  of  polytheism,  anthropo- 
morphism appears  in  an  external  form,  and  the 

*  Numen  really  means  the  manifestation  of  power,  from  nuere. 
Varro  makes  Attius  say :  "  Multis  nomen  vestrum  numenque  ciendo." 
In  Lucretius  we  have  mentis  numen,  and  also  Numen  Augusti.  An 
inscription  discovered  by  Mommsen  runs  as  follows : 

"  P.  Floras,  etc.  Dianae  numine  jussu  posuit." 


172  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

specific  type  is  transformed  into  the  idol  which  repre» 
sents  and  dominates  over  it,  inspiring  the  com- 
mission of  beneficent  or  hurtful  acts.  Of  this  it 
is  unnecessary  to  adduce  examples,  since  all  the 
mythologies  which  have  reached  this  polytheistic 
stage  are  anthropomorphic,  and  in  these  the  specific 
type,  which  serves  as  the  first  step  to  polytheism, 
subsequently  becomes  a  completely  human  idol. 

After  this  anthropomorphic  classification  has  been 
reached  by  logical  elaboration,  a  new  field  is  opened 
for  the  reduction  of  special  types  into  those  which 
are  more  general,  as  had  been  previously  the  case 
in  the  early  stages  of  myth.  By  continually  con- 
centrating, and  at  the  same  time  by  enlarging  the 
value  of  the  conception,  it  is  united  in  a  single  form 
which  constitutes  the  dawn  and  genesis  of  mono- 
theism. This  methodical  process,  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  human  thought,  may  be  traced  in  all 
peoples  which  have  really  attained  to  the  mono- 
theistic idea,  in  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  races,  in 
China,  Japan,  and  Egypt,  in  Peru  and  Mexico ;  the 
belief  may  also  be  obscurely  traced  in  an  inchoate 
form  among  savage  and  inferior  tribes,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, among  the  Indians  of  Central  and  North 
America,  and  among  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Africa  and  barbarous  Asia. 

While  this  conception  took  a  more  or  less  definite 
form  among  the  more  advanced  peoples,  the  earlier 
and  debased  myths  maintained  their  ground,  and 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.    173 

still  continue  to  do  so.  Of  this  we  have  examples  in 
Europe  itself,  and  among  its  more  civilized  peoples 
which  have  been  transplanted  elsewhere ;  for  while 
in  one  direction  a  capacity  for  classification  leads 
to  a  purer  monotheistic  conception,  and  even  to 
rational  science,  the  great  majority  of  the  common 
people,  and  even  of  those  of  higher  culture,  still  hold 
many  ideas  which  are  polytheistic  and  anthropo- 
morphic, and  some  which  really  belong  to  the  de- 
based stage  of  fetishism  and  vulgar  superstition. 

Other  causes  contribute  to  produce  the  natural  and 
intrinsic  concurrence  of  the  several  stages  of  myth 
which  are  found  existing  together  in  the  life  of  a 
people.  Such,  for  example,  is  the  conquest  effected 
by  a  more  civilized  nation  over  another  race,  inferior 
by  nature  or  retarded  by  other  circumstances.  The 
mythical  ideas  of  the  conquered  people  remain,  and 
are  even  diffused  through  the  lower  classes  of  the 
conquering  race  ;  or  they  are  ingrafted  by  a  synthetic 
and  assimilating  process,  so  as  to  modify  other 
mythical  and  religious  beliefs.  This  compound  of 
various  stages  and  various  beliefs  also  occurs  through 
the  moral  and  intellectual  diffusion  of  dogma,  without 
the  acquisition  of  really  new  matter.  Manifest 
proofs  of  these  various  stages  of  myth,  co-existent 
together,  may  be  traced  in  the  development  of  the 
Vedic  ideas  among  the  earlier  aboriginal  nations,  and 
conversely ;  as  in  the  case  of  the  Aztecs  and  Incas 
in  Mexico  and  Peru,  whose  earlier  beliefs  were  mixed 


174  MYTH   AND  SCIENCE. 

with  those  of  their  conquerors.  The  same  thing  may 
be  observed  in  the  development  of  Judaism  during 
the  Babylonish  captivity,  in  the  biblical  and  messianic 
doctrines  which  were  grafted  on  pagan  beliefs,  and  in 
the  teaching  of  Islam,  as  it  was  adopted  in  the  East 
and  among  the  black  races  of  Africa. 

We  must  make  allowance  for  these  extrinsic 
accidents  if  we  are  to  describe  correctly  the  natural 
course  and  logical  evolution  of  myth.  Even  with 
respect  to  the  special  evolution  of  myth  in  a  separate 
people,  unmixed  with  others,  while  it  is  normal  in 
what  may  be  termed  its  general  form  and  categorical 
phases,  yet  like  all  natural  objects  and  phenomena, 
and  much  more  in  all  which  concerns  the  human 
mind,  there  are  variations  in  its  forms,  and  it  attains 
its  ends  by  many  ways. 

If  we  take  a  wider  view  of  the  general  and  reci- 
procal influences  of  ethnic  myths ;  as  respects  the 
historic  results  of  mythologies,  we  shall  see  that  if 
every  race  evolved  its  sphere  of  myth  in  accordance 
with  the  canons  laid  down  by  us,  their  effect  upon 
each  other  would  work  together  for  a  common  result 
more  quickly  than  when  each  is  taken  apart.  The 
reader  must  allow  me  to  make  my  meaning  clear  by 
the  following  passage  from  my  work  on  the  "'Dottrina 
razionale  del  Progresso,"  which  I  published  in  1863, 
in  the  "  Politecnico,"  Milan,  on  the  fusion  of  the 
monotheistic  conception  of  the  Semitic  race  with 
the  beliefs  of  Greece  and  Borne  at  the  dawn  of 
Christianity : — 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   175 

"  Christianity  was  originally  based  on  the  abso- 
lute idea  of  the  divine  first  Principle,  to  which  one 
portion  of  the  Semitic  race  had  attained  by  intel- 
lectual evolution,  and  by  the  acumen  of  the  great 
men  who  brought  this  idea  to  perfection.  Either 
because  of  their  clearer  consciousness,  or  from  their 
environment  and  the  physical  circumstances  of  the 
race,  the  Semitic  people  passed  from  the  primitive 
ideas  of  mythology  to  the  conception  of  the  absolute 
and  infinite  Being,  while  other  races  still  adhered  to 
altogether  fanciful  and  anthropomorphic  ideas  of  this 
Being.  Our  race  had  an  Olympus,  like  the  others, 
and  throughout  its  history  this  Olympus  was  always 
assuming  new  forms,  although  a  human  conception 
was  the  basis  of  its  religious  ideas.  The  Chinese  and 
Semitic  races  were  the  first  to  rise  to  the  conception 
of  an  absolute  first  principle,  but  in  both  cases  the 
conception  was  more  or  less  unfruitful. 

"The  gradual  transition  from  consciousness  to 
conception,  from  the  fact  to  the  idea,  from  the  idol 
to  the  law,  from  the  symbol  to  the  thought,  from  the 
finite  to  the  infinite,  is  the  characteristic  and  essential 
course  taken  by  the  human  mind.  But,  practically, 
this  process  is  more  gradual  or  more  rapid,  is  re- 
tarded or  advanced,  attains  its  aim  or  stops  short 
in  its  first  rudiments,  according  to  the  race  in  which 
it  occurs.  So  it  was  that,  as  we  have  just  said,  the 
Chinese  and  Semitic  races  were  the  first  to  reach 
the  final  goal  of  this  psychological  progress;  other 


176  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

peoples,  such  as  the  Aryans  and  their  offshoots, 
savages  and  partially  civilized  races,  remained  in 
the  early  stages  of  this  dialectic  scale.  Undoubtedly, 
in  our  own  race,  the  early  religious  conceptions  which 
constituted  a  simple  worship  of  nature  in  various 
forms  were  constantly  becoming  of  purer  character, 
and  they  were  not  only  exalted  in  their  spiritual 
quality,  but  in  the  Greek  and  Eoman  religions  they 
attained  to  something  like  scientific  precision.  Yet 
even  in  these  higher  aspirations  the  race  did  not 
surrender  its  mythical  faculty,  to  which  it  was 
impelled  by  its  physical  and  psychological  constitu- 
tion, and  the  pure  conception  was  unconsciously  over- 
shadowed by  symbolic  ideas.  We  can  plainly  see  how 
far  this  symbolism,  peculiar  to  the  race,  obscured 
the  minds  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  of  almost  all 
the  subsequent  philosophers.  In  the  Semitic  and 
Chinese  races  this  inner  symbolism  of  the  mind,  with 
reference  to  the  interpretation  of  nature,  was  less 
tenacious,  intense,  and  productive,  and  they  soon 
freed  themselves  from  their  mental  bonds  in  order 
to  rise  to  the  conception  of  the  absolute  Being, 
distinct  from  the  world.  When  this  idea  had  been 
grasped  by  rude  and  popular  intuition,  men  of  the 
highest  intellectual  power  perfected  the  still  confused 
conception,  and  founded  upon  it  science,  civil  and 
political  institutions,  and  national  customs. 

"The  idea  of  Christianity  arose  in  the  midst  of 
the  Semitic  people  through  him  whose  name  it  bears, 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   177 

and  who  perfected  the  religious  idea  of  his  nation. 
This  idea,  in  its  Semitic  simplicity,  consisted  in  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  one,  eternal,  infinite  God, 
the  immediate  creator  of  all  things ;  it  included  the 
tradition  of  man's  loss  of  his  original  felicity,  and 
the  promise  of  a  restoration  of  all  peoples,  and  of 
the  Israelites  in  particular,  to  their  former  condition 
of  earthly  happiness.  Christ  appeared,  and  while 
he  upheld  the  Mosaic  law  and  its  original  idea,  he 
declared  himself  to  be  the  promised  deliverer,  sent 
of  God ;  the  Son  of  God,  which  among  the  Semitic 
people  was  the  term  applied  to  their  prophets.  His 
moral  teaching  gave  a  more  perfect  form  to  the  old 
law,  and  by  his  example  he  afforded  a  model  of  human 
virtue  worthy  of  all  veneration  ;  the  germs  of  a 
marvellous  civilization  were  to  be  found  in  his  moral 
and  partially  new  teaching.  The  same  doctrine  had 
been,  to  some  extent,  inculcated  by  the  Jewish 
teachers,  and  the  schools  of  Hillel  and  Gamaliel 
were  certainly  not  morally  inferior  to  his  own,  as 
we  learn  from  the  tradition  of  the  Talmud,  and 
from  some  passages  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
The  origin,  development,  and  teaching  of  primitive 
Christianity  were  therefore  essentially  Semitic, 
since  it  had  its  origin  in  a  people  of  that  race,  and 
in  a  man  of  that  people.  Yet  the  Semitic  race  did 
not  become  Christian ;  and,  after  so  many  ages  have 
elapsed,  it  still  rejects  Christianity.  It  was  the  Aryan 
race,  to  which  we  Europeans  belong,  which  adopted 


178  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

this  teaching  and  became  essentially  Christian, 
although  this  race  is  psychologically  the  most 
idolatrous  of  the  world,  as  far  as  the  aesthetic  idol 
— not  the  common  fetish — is  concerned.  Let  us 
inquire  into  the  cause  of  this  remarkable  fact. 

"  As  soon  as  the  teaching  of  Christ  was  adopted  by 
those  familiar  with  Aryan  civilization  and  opinions, 
an  idea  repugnant  to  Semitic  conceptions,  and  still 
unintelligible  to  that  race,  was  evolved  from  it — I 
mean  the  idea  that  the  human  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  was  God  himself.  The  Semite  holds  that  God 
is  so  far  exalted  above  all  creation,  so  great  and 
eternal  in  comparison  with  the  littleness  of  the  world 
and  of  man,  that  God  incarnate  is  not  merely  a 
blasphemy  but  an  unmeaning  and  absurd  phrase. 
Such  a  dogma  was  therefore  energetically  repudiated, 
and  the  Semitic  race  submitted  to  persecution  and 
dispersal  rather  than  accept  it.  This  is  the  real 
reason  why  Christianity  has  not  been  received  and 
will  never  be  received  by  the  Semitic  race.  When 
Mahomet  reorganized  and  perfected  the  Arab  creed, 
he  preserved  intact  the  Semitic  principle  of  the 
absolute  and  incommunicable  nature  of  God:  the 
Semitic  religion  has  ever  held  that  there  is  one  God, 
and  his  prophet. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  Christianity  was  rapidly  dif- 
fused among  the  Greek  and  Latin  peoples,  and  in  all 
parts  of  Europe  inhabited  by  our  race  :  even  savages 
and  barbarians  accepted  more  or  less  frankly  a 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   179 

doctrine  rejected  by  the  Semites  in  whom  it  had  its 
origin.  Many  and  various  causes  have  been  assigned 
for  this  rapid  diffusion  of  the  new  doctrine,  and  the 
old  Greek  and  Latin  fathers  ascribed  it  to  the 
fact  that  men's  minds  had  been  naturally  and  provi- 
dentially prepared  for  it.  It  was  attributed  by  others 
to  the  miseries  and  sufferings  of  the  slave  popula- 
tion, and  of  the  poor,  who  found  a  sweet  illusion  and 
comfort  in  the  Christian  hope  of  a  world  beyond  the 
grave.  Some,  again,  suggest  the  omnipotent  will  of 
a  tyrant,  or  the  extreme  ignorance  of  the  common 
and  barbarous  people.  Although  all  these  causes  had 
a  partial  effect,  they  were  secondary  and  accidental. 
The  true  and  unique  cause  lay  deeper,  in  the  intel- 
lectual constitution  of  the  race  to  which  Christianity 
was  preached;  just  as  physiological  characteristics 
are  reproduced  in  the  species  until  they  become 
permanent,  so  do  intellectual  inclinations  become 
engrained  in  the  nature. 

"We  have  .said  that  our  race  is  aesthetically  more 
mythological  than  all  others.  If  we  consider  the 
religious  teaching  of  various  Aryan  peoples,  from  the 
most  primitive  Vedic  idolatry  to  the  successive  re- 
ligions of  Brahma  and  Zend,  of  the  Celts,  Greeks, 
Latins,  Germans,  and  Slavs,  we  shall  see  how  widely 
they  differ  from  the  religious  conceptions  and  ideas  of 
other  races.  The  vein  of  fanciful  creations  is  inex- 
haustible, and  there  is  a  wealth  of  symbolic  combi- 
nations and  a  profusion  of  celestial  and  semi-celestial 


180  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

dramas.  The  intrinsic  habit  of  forming  mythical 
representations  of  nature  is  due  to  a  more  vivid  sense 
of  her  power,  to  a  rapid  succession  of  images,  and  to 
a  constant  projection  of  the  observer's  own  personality 
into  phenomena.  This  peculiar  characteristic  of  our 
race  is  never  wholly  overcome,  and  to  it  is  added  a 
proud  self-consciousness,  an  energy  of  thought  and 
action,  a  constant  aspiration  after  grand  achievements, 
and  a  haughty  contempt  for  all  other  nations. 

"  The  very  name  of  Aryan,  transmitted  in  a  modified 
form  to  all  successive  generations,  denotes  dominion 
and  valour  ;  the  Brahmanic  cosmogony,  and  the 
epithet  of  apes,  given  to  all  other  races  in  the  epic  of 
Valmiki,  bear  witness  to  the  same  fact ;  it  is  shown  in 
the  slavery  imposed  on  conquered  peoples,  in  the 
hatred  of  foreigners  felt  by  all  the  Hellenic  tribes ;  in 
the  omnipotence  of  Eome,  the  haughtiness  of  the  Ger- 
manic orders ;  in  the  feudal  system,  in  the  Crusades  ; 
and  finally,  in  the  modern  sense  of  our  superiority  to 
all  other  existing  races.  The  quickness  of  perception, 
and  the  facile  projection  of  human  personality  into 
natural  objects,  led  to  the  manifold  creations  of  Olym- 
pus, and  this  was  an  aesthetic  obstacle  to  any  nearer 
approach  to  the  pure  and  absolute  conception  of 
God,  while  the  innate  pride  of  race  was  a  hindrance 
to  our  humiliation  in  the  dust  before  God.  The 
Semites  declared  that  man  was  created  in  the  image 
of  God,  and  we  created  God  in  our  own  image ;  while 
conscious  of  the  power  of  the  numina  we  confronted 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   181 

them  boldly,  and  were  ready  to  resist  them.  The 
Indian  legends,  and  those  of  the  Hellenes,  the 
Scandinavians,  and  the  whole  Aryan  race,  are  full 
of  conflicts  between  gods  and  men.  The  demi-gods 
must  be  remembered,  showing  that  the  Aryans  believed 
themselves  to  be  sufficiently  noble  and  great  for  the 
gods  to  love  them,  and  to  intermarry  with  them. 
Thus  the  Aryan  made  himself  into  a  God,  and  often 
took  a  glorious  place  in  Olympus,  while  he  declared 
that  God  was  made  man. 

"We  might  imagine  that  the  doctrine  of  God  in- 
carnate would  be  as  repugnant  to  the  ideas,  feelings, 
and  intellect  of  the  Aryan  as  it  was  to  the  Semitic 
race.  But  the  anthropomorphic  side  of  Christianity 
was  readily  embraced  by  the  former  as  a  mythical 
and  aesthetic  conception,  and  indeed  it  was  they 
who  made  a  metaphorical  expression  into  an 
essential  dogma :  the  pride  natural  to  the  Aryan 
race  made  them  eager  to  accept  a  religion  which 
placed  man  in  a  still  higher  Olympus:  a  belief  in 
Christ  was  rapidly  diffused,  not  as  God  but  as  the 
Man-God.  These  are  the  true  reasons,  not  only  for 
the  rapid  spread  of  Christianity  in  Europe,  but  also 
for  the  philosophic  systems  of  the  Platonists  and 
Alexandrines  which  preceded  it.  Although  Philo  was 
a  Hebrew,  and  probably  knew  nothing  of  Christ,  he 
attained  by  means  of  Hellenism  to  the  idea  of  the 
Man- God ;  the  Platonic  Word,  which  was  merely  the 
projection  of  God  into  human  reason,  was  accepted 


182  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

for  the  same  reason  as  the  Christian  dogma  of  the 
Word  made  man. 

"Let  us  see  what  new  principles,  what  higher 
morality  and  civilization  were  added  by  the  diffusion 
of  Christianity  to  those  principles  which  were  the 
spontaneous  product  of  the  race.  We  must  first  con- 
sider what  part  the  pagan  gods,  as  they  were  regarded 
by  educated  men,  played  in  the  history  of  the  Euro- 
pean race,  with  respect  to  the  individual  and  to  the 
commonwealth.  The  pagan  Olympus,  considered  as 
a  whole,  and  without  reference  to  the  various  forms 
which  it  assumed  in  different  peoples,  was  not  essen- 
tially distinct  from  human  society.  Although  the 
gods  formed  a  higher  order  of  immortal  beings,  they 
were  mixed  up  with  men  in  a  thousand  ways  in 
practical  life,  and  conformed  to  the  ways  of  humanity ; 
they  were  constantly  occupied  in  doing  good  or  ill  to 
mortals  ;  they  were  warmly  interested  in  the  disputes 
of  men,  taking  part  in  the  conflicts  of  persons,  cities, 
and  peoples ;  special  divinities  watched  over  men 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  they  were  loved 
or  hated  by  the  gods  by  reason  of  their  family  and 
race.  In  short,  the  heavenly  and  earthly  communities 
were  so  intermixed  that  the  gods  were  only  superior 
and  immortal  men. 

"  The  people  were  accustomed  to  consider  their 
deities  as  ever  present,  distinct  from,  and  yet  insepar- 
ably joined  with  them ;  so  that  the  individual,  the 
country,  the  tribes,  were  ever  governed,  guarded, 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.    183 

favoured,  or  opposed  by  special  and  peculiar  gods. 
Olympus  had  a  history,  since  the  acts  of  the  gods 
took  place  in  time  and  were  coincident  with  the  history 
of  nations,  so  that  every  event  in  heaven  corresponded 
with  one  on  earth;  the  idea  of  divine  justice  was 
exemplified  in  that  of  men,  and  both  were  perfected 
together.  Among  pagans  of  the  Aryan  race  there  was 
a  perpetual  and  repeated  alliance  between  men  and 
gods  made  in  the  image  of  man.  This  action  of  the 
gods  both  for  good  and  evil  became  in  its  turn  the  rule 
of  life  for  the  ignorant  multitude,  and  they  acted  in 
conformity  with  the  supposed  will  and  actions  of  the 
gods;  the  divine  will  was,  however,  nothing  but  an 
a  priori  religious  conception  of  an  idol  representing 
the  forces  of  nature  or  some  moral  or  religious  idea. 
The  moral  perfection  of  nations,  as  time  went  on,  also 
perfected  the  supreme  justice  of  Olympus,  and  the 
moral  worth  of  the  gods  increased  as  men  became 
better.  So  that  it  was  not  the  original  theological 
idea,  but  man  himself,  who  made  heaven  more  perfect, 
and  the  gods  morally  better  and  more  just. 

"  The  explicit  power  of  mental  reasoning  and  of 
science  was  added  to  this  spontaneous  evolution  of  the 
religious  idea,  so  far  as  the  improved  morality  of  the 
race  perfected  the  heavenly  justice  which  was  its  own 
creation.  The  pagan  Olympus  was  gradually  sim- 
plified by  sages  and  philosophers  ;  the  illicit  passions 
of  the  gods  were  set  aside,  and  it  was  transformed  into 
a  providential  government  of  individuals  and  of  society, 


184  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

much   more   remote  from  direct   contact  with  men. 
The   conception   of  the  immortal  gods  included  one 
supreme  power,  formative,  protecting  or  avenging,  and 
this  conception  bordered  on  the  Semitic  idea  of  the 
absolute  Being,  although  without  quite  attaining  to  it. 
God  was  confounded  with  the  order  of  things,  his  laws 
were  those  of  the   universe,  by  which  he  was   also 
bound,  and  the  righteous  man  lived  in  conformity 
with  these  laws.     When  Christianity  began,   pagan 
rationalism  had   arrived   at   the  idea  of  a   spiritual 
and   directing  power,  organically  identical  with  the 
universe.     It  was  neither  the  Olympus  of  the  common 
people,  nor    the    Semitic  Jehovah,   but    rather    the 
conscious  and  inevitable  order  of  nature.    Although, 
either  as  an  Olympus  or  as  a  dogma,  the  deity  was 
confounded  with  men  or  constrained  them  to  follow 
a  more   rational  rule   of  life,  yet    paganism   clearly 
distinguished  the  gods  from  men  in  their   concrete 
personality,  and  the  action  of  humanity  was  therefore 
distinct  from  that  of  the  deity. 

"When  Christianity  began,  the  peoples  of  the 
Aryan  race  in  Europe,  or  at  least  those  of  more 
advanced  civilization,  had  constituted  for  themselves 
'a  heavenly  Pantheon,  which  contained  nearly  all  the 
primitive  deities,  but  in  a  more  human  form  and 
exercising  a  juster  rule  over  the  world,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  were  regarded  as  quite  distinct  from 
the  society  of  men.  Although  there  was  in  this 
multiplicity  of  divine  forms  an  hierarchical  order  of 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   185 

different  ranks,  there  was  no  general  conception  to 
include  the  destinies  of  the  whole  human  race,  and  to 
manifest  by  its  unity  its  providential  and  historical 
development.  Each  people  believed  in  their  own 
special  destiny,  which  should  either  raise  them  to 
greater  glory  and  power  or  bring  them  to  a  speedy  and 
inevitable  end ;  but  there  was  no  common  fate,  no 
common  prosperity  nor  disaster.  Eome  had,  as  far 
as  possible,  united  these  various  peoples  by  the  idea 
of  her  power,  by  the  inforcement  of  her  laws,  and 
by  the  benefits  of  her  citizenship,  yet  the  Eoman 
unity  was  external,  and  did  not  spring  from  the  in- 
timate sense  of  a  common  lineage.  While  the  nations 
were  so  closely  united  to  Kome  by  brute  force,  the 
subject  peoples  were  agitated  by  a  desire  for  their 
ancient  independence  and  self-government.  Some 
of  these  pagan  multitudes  advanced  in  civilization 
through  their  education  in  the  learning  of  the  Eomans, 
and  in  morality  through  their  spontaneous  activity, 
but  they  did  not  possess  any  deep  sense  of  a  general 
providence,  and  heaven  and  earth  continued  to  be 
under  the  sway  of  an  incomprehensible  fate. 

"If  we  now  turn  to  consider  the  mental  conditions 
of  educated  men  at  that  time,  we  shall  see  that  they 
transformed  the  Olympus  of  personal  and  concrete 
gods  into  symbols  of  the  forces  of  nature,  and  that 
they  had  risen  to  a  purer  conception  of  the  deity  by 
making  it  agree  with  the  progress  of  reason;  but 
this  deity  was  so  remote  from  earth  as  to  have  scarcely 


186  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

anything  to  do  with  the  government  of  the  world. 
According  to  the  teaching  of  the  Stoics,  which  was  very 
generally  diffused,  man  was  supposed  to  be  so  far  left 
to  himself  that  he  was  the  creator  of  his  own  virtue, 
and  had  to  struggle,  not  only  against  nature  and  his 
fellow-man,  but  against  fate,  the  underlying  essence 
of  every  cosmic  form  and  motion.  If  this  pagan 
rationalism  gave  rise  to  great  theoretic  morality, 
and  produced  amazing  examples  of  private  and  public 
virtue,  it  had  little  effect  on  the  multitudes,  nor  did  it 
contain  any  guiding  principle  for  the  historical  life  of 
humanity  as  a  whole. 

"  Christianity  proclaimed  the  spiritual  unity  of 
God,  the  unity  of  the  race,  the  brotherhood  of  all 
peoples,  the  redemption  of  the  world,  and  consequently 
a  providential  influence  on  mankind.  Christianity 
taught  that  God  himself  was  made  man,  and  lived 
among  men.  Such  teaching  was  offered  to  the 
people  as  a  truth  of  consciousness  rather  than  of 
dogma,  although  it  was  afterwards  preserved  in  a 
theological  form  by  the  preaching  of  Paul,  and  the 
pagan  mind  was  more  affected  by  sentiment  than  by 
reason.  The  unity  of  God  was  associated  in  their 
aesthetic  imagination  with  the  earlier  conception  of 
the  supreme  Zeus,  which  now  took  a  more  Semitic 
form,  and  Olympus  was  gloriously  transformed  into 
a  company  of  elect  Christians  and  holy  fathers  of 
the  new  faith.  A  confused  sentiment  as  to  the 
mystic  union  of  peoples,  who  became  brothers  in 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   187 

Christ,  had  a  powerful  effect  on  the  imagination 
and  the  heart,  since  they  had  already  learned  to 
regard  the  world  as  the  creation  of  one  eternal 
Being.  In  the  ardour  of  proselytism  and  of  the 
diffusion  of  the  new  creed,  they  hailed  the  historical 
transformation  of  the  earthly  endeavour  after  temporal 
acquisitions  and  pleasures  into  a  providential  pre- 
paration for  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

"  In  Christ,  the  incarnation  of  the  supreme  God, 
they  beheld  the  apotheosis  of  man,  so  acceptable  to 
the  Aryan  race,  since  he  thus  became  the  absolute 
ruler  of  the  world  and  its  fates.  Ideas  and  senti- 
ments, of  which  the  Semitic  mind  was  incapable, 
and  which  were  opposed  to  their  historical  and 
intellectual  development,  moved  and  satisfied  the 
Aryan  mind,  and  became  associated  as  far  as  possible 
with  the  dogma  and  belief  to  which  the  race  had 
attained  in  their  pagan  civilization.  Thus  heaven, 
dogma,  and  Christian  rites  assumed  from  the  first 
a  pagan  form ;  and  while  the  original  idols  were  re- 
pudiated in  the  zeal  for  new  principles,  their  common 
likeness  was  maintained  by  the  imaginative  power  of 
the  race. 

"  In  this  way  Christianity  became  popular,  and 
the  Semitic  idea  was  invested  with  pagan  forms,  in 
order  to  carry  on  the  gradual  and  more  intimate 
spiritual  transformation  which  is  not  yet  terminated. 
Its  teaching  was  at  first  decidedly  rejected  and  op- 
posed by  cultivated  minds,  accustomed  as  the  Greeks 


188  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

were  with  few  exceptions  to  use  their  reason.  Among 
philosophers,  the  popular  belief  in  a  personal  Olympus 
had  disappeared,  and  a  more  rational  study  of  mankind 
did  not  allow  them  to  understand  or  comprehend  a 
dogma  which  re-established  anthropomorphism  under 
another  aspect,  so  that  this  new  and  impious  super- 
stition became  the  object  of  persecution.  These  were, 
however,  mere  exceptions,  an  anticipation  of  the 
opposition  of  reason  to  mythical  ideas,  which  became 
more  vigorous  in  every  successive  age,  until  the  time 
arrived  when  reason,  educated  by  a  long  course  of 
exercise,  was  able  to  renew  the  effort  with  greater 
authority  and  success.  The  common  people  gradually 
became  Christian,  and  so  also  did  educated  men,  who 
thus  added  the  authority  of  the  schools  to  a  teaching 
accepted  by  the  feelings  and  innate  inclination  of  the 
race,  and  hence  followed  the  theological  development 
of  Christian  dogma. 

"  These  new  principles  and  beliefs,  eventually 
accepted  by  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  both  barbarous 
and  civilized,  not  only  brought  to  perfection  the 
religious  intuition  characteristic  of  the  morality 
and  civilization  of  the  race,  but  they  produced  a 
new  and  renovating  power  in  historical  and  social 
life.  This  fresh  virtue  consisted  in  the  belief  in  a 
power  consubstantially  divine  and  human.  Although 
the  pagan  gods  were  human  in  their  extrinsic  and 
intrinsic  form,  only  differing  from  mortals  by  their 
mighty  privileges,  yet  they  were  personally  distinct 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   189 

from  men,  and  while  the  acts  of  Olympus  mingled 
with  those  of  earth,  they  had  an  habitation  and 
destinies  apart.  But  by  the  new  dogma,  the  one 
God  who  was  a  Spirit  took  on  him  the  •  substance  of 
man  and  was  united  with  humanity  as  a  whole,  accord- 
ing to  the  Pauline  interpretation,  which  was  generally 
accepted  by  our  race.  The  divine  nature  was  con- 
tinually imparted  to  man,  the  body  and  members  in 
which  the  divine  spirit  was  incarnated,  since  the 
Church  or  mystical  community  of  Christians  was  the 
temple  of  God.  Through  this  lively  sense  of  the  divine 
incarnation,  the  Christian  avatar  with  which  the  race 
had  been  acquainted  under  other  forms,  God  was  no 
longer  essentially  distinguished  from  mankind  in 
the  form  of  a  number  of  concrete  beings,  but  was 
spiritually  infused  into  men  and  acted  through  them. 
The  Christian  as  man  felt  himself  to  be  a  participator 
with  God  himself  by  a  mystic  intercourse.  Since, 
therefore,  the  human  faculty  was  historically  identical 
with  the  divine,  and  shared  in  the  spiritual  work 
which  was  to  effect  the  redemption  of  society,  this 
new  and  Christian  civilization  added  daring,  con- 
fidence, and  virtue  to  the  natural  energy  of  the  race. 

"  Not  many  years  elapsed  before  men  ceased  to 
contemplate  the  immediate  end  of  the  world  predicted 
by  the  first  apostles  and  the  Apocalypse ;  they  looked 
forward  to  a  more  distant  future,  and  except  in  the 
case  of  some  particular  sects,  they  applied  the  pro- 
phecies which  referred  to  the  first  generation  of 


190  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Christians  to  the  future  history  of  the  race.  It  was 
therefore  Christianity  which  introduced  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  our  Aryan  peoples  the  principles  of  a 
divine  historic  power  acting  on  the  social  economy 
of  mankind,  and  in  this  way  the  natural  dignity  and 
enterprising  pride  of  the  race  was  increased.  Through 
this  fresh  religious  intuition  and  spiritual  exaltation, 
the  purity  and  moral  sweetness  of  the  Semitic 
Nazarene  became  the  law  of  society,  and  the  church 
organization  gradually  assimilated  everything  to  itself, 
and  received  divine  worship  in  the  person  of  the 
supreme  Pontiff,  who  continued  for  many  ages  to  be 
the  temporal  ruler  of  consciences,  of  public  institu- 
tions, and  of  civilization.  Strange  daring  in  a  race 
which  from  its  early  beginnings  down  to  our  own  days 
has  been  always  true  to  its  own  character,  and  in 
one  form  or  other  has  displayed  vigour,  energy, 
ambition,  transforming  power,  and  great  designs. 

"  This  remarkable  process  could  only  go  on  in  and 
through  those  peoples  whose  vigour  and  pride  equalled 
their  physical  strength;  to  whom  it  is  death  to  sit 
still,  and  life  to  be  always  busy,  to  transform  all 
things  to  their  own  image,  to  dominate  over  all — over 
God  by  the  intellect,  over  the  world  by  science,  over 
other  races  by  force  of  arms.  After  the  anthropo- 
morphic form  was  given  to  natural  phenomena,  which 
is  done  to  some  extent  by  all  races,  the  gods  were 
made  in  the  image  of  man ;  full  of  aesthetic  imagi- 
nation, of  grand  and  vigorous  conceptions,  they 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   191 

modified  and  transformed  the  truth  of  the  Semitic 
idea,  to  suit  their  own  genius  and  imagination,  and 
in  this  way  they  produced  the  wonderful  fabric  of 
Christian  civilization  and  of  Catholicism.  They  alone 
accepted  a  teaching  which  infused  new  spirit  into 
social  life  and  produced  the  rule  of  religion  over  the 
world,  and  the  race  still  stands  alone  in  the  main- 
tenance of  its  beliefs,  to  which  science  has  added 
the  powerful  simplicity  of  the  Semitic  idea,  and  their 
vigorous  influence  has  perpetuated  and  perfected 
human  progress  upon  earth.*  The  Aryan  race  at- 
tained to  the  Semitic  conception  in  its  purity  and 
cosmic  reality  by  the  process  of  reason,  and  only 
because  it  was  endowed  with  all  the  civilizing  and 
moral  qualities  which  were  acquired  in  so  many  ages 
of  moral  and  intellectual  energy,  has  the  old  concep- 
tion been  so  vigorous  and  productive. 

"  The  Semitic  race,  on  the  other  hand,  adhered  to 
their  old  faith,  rejected  Christianity,  as  it  had  been 
formulated  by  the  Aryans,  and  had  little  influence  on 
the  world.  The  Israelites,  indeed,  dispersed  among 
other  nations,  retained  the  idea  of  the  one  spiritual 
God  in  all  its  purity,  and  civilization  would  have 


*  The  illustrious  Du  Bois  Reymond  delivered  a  lecture  a  few  years 
ago,  in  which  he  made  it  clear  that  the  Semitic  idea  of  one  Almighty 
God  led  to  the  later  and  modern  conception  of  the  unity  of  forces 
and  the  rational  interpretation  of  the  system  of  the  universe.  This 
important  testimony  of  so  able  a  man  confirms  the  theory  set  forth 
some  years  ago  in  the  work  of  which  I  have  reproduced  a  part  in  the 
text. 


192  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

been  much  indebted  to  them  for  this  rational  idea  of 
God  if  they  had  more  clearly  understood  its  scientific 
bearing  and  the  nature  of  man ;  many  of.  them  are 
indeed  justly  entitled  to  fame  in  every  department 
of  science.  But  taken  by  themselves  and  as  a  people, 
they  had  little  effect  on  civilization,  since  they  lacked 
the  energy  of  purpose,  courage,  mental  superiority, 
and  imagination,  which  create  a  durable  and  powerful 
civilization. 

"  The  Arabs,  aroused  for  a  time  by  Mahometan 
fanaticism,  overran  great  part  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa,  but  without  influencing  civilization.  While 
in  possession  of  a  great  and  productive  idea,  they 
remained  a  sterile  and  nomad  people,  or  founded  un- 
productive dynasties.  For  the  Semitic  race,  the  in- 
terval between  God  and  man,  and  consequently  between 
God  and  civilization,  was  and  is  infinite,  impassable. 
The  Arabs  possessed  nothing  but  the  devastating 
force  of  proselytism  to  fertilize  their  minds  and  social 
relations ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  architecture, 
geography,  and  cognate  sciences,  they  were  for  the 
most  part  only  the  transmitters  of  the  science  of 
others.  We,  on  the  contrary,  filled  up  the  gulf  by 
placing  the  Man-God  between  God  and  man,  and 
civilization  has  a  power  and  vigour  which  has  never 
flagged,  and  which,  now  that  dogma  is  transformed 
into  reason,  will  not  flag  while  the  world  lasts."  * 

*  Some  Jewish  Christians  of  the  Semitic  race  took  refuge  in  a 
district  of  Syria,  and  retained  their  primitive  faith  without  further 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   193 

This  extract  from  a  work  published  many  years 
ago,  seems  to  me  to  confirm  the  theory  of  myths 
which  1  have  explained ;  it  shows  how  they  are  ulti- 
mately fused  into  a  simple  form,  in  conformity  with 
the  ideas  of  civilized  society,  and  it  will  also  throw 
light  on  what  is  to  follow. 

If  we  consider  the  primitive  genesis  and  evolution 
of  myth,  confirmed  by  all  the  facts  of  history  and 
ethnography,  it  will  appear  that  although  the  matter 
on  which  thought  was  exercised  was  mythical  and 
fanciful,  the  form  and  organizing  method  were  the 
same  as  those  of  science.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  scientific 
process  to  observe,  spontaneously  at  first,  and  then 
deliberately,  the  points  of  likeness  and  unlikeness 
between  special  objects  of  perception ;  we  must  rise 
from  the  particular  to  the  general,  from  the  individual 
to  the  species,  thus  ever  enlarging  the  circle  of  obser- 
vation, in  order  to  arrive  at  types,  laws,  and  ultimate 
unity,  or  at  least  a  unity  supposed  to  be  ultimate,  to 
which  everything  is  reduced.  So  that  the  mythical 
faculty  of  thought  was  scientific  in  its  logical  form, 
and  was  exercised  in  the  same  way  as  the  scientific 
faculty. 

But  science  does  not  merely  consist  in  the  sys- 

development,  under  the  name  of  Nazarenes  or  Ebionites.  In  the  fourth 
century,  Epiphanius  and  Jerome  found  these  primitive  Christians 
constant  to  the  old  dogma,  while  Aryan  Christianity  had  made 
gigantic  strides,  both  in  its  ideas  and  social  organization.  Among 
the  Semites,  even  when  they  have  partially  accepted  the  dogma,  it  was 
and  is  unproductive. 


194  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

tematic  arrangement  of  facts  in  which  it  begins,  nor 
in  their  combination  into  general  and  comprehensive 
laws ;  the  sequence  of  causes  and  effects  must  also 
be  understood,  and  it  is  not  enough  to  classify  the 
fact  without  explaining  its  genesis  and  cause.  We 
have  seen  that  the  innate  faculty  of  perception  in- 
volved the  idea  of  a  cause  in  the  supposition  that  the 
phenomenon  was  actuated  by  a  subject,  and  while 
thought  classified  fetishes  and  idols  in  a  mythical 
way,  an  inherent  power  for  good  or  evil  was  ascribed 
to  them,  not  only  in  their  relation  to  man,  but  in 
their  effects  on  nature.  What  Vico  has  called  "  the 
poetry  of  physics "  consisted  in  the  explanation  of 
natural  phenomena  by  the  efficacy  of  mythical  and 
supernatural  agents.  From  this  point  of  view  again, 
myth  and  science  pursue  identically  the  same  method 
and  the  same  general  form  of  cognition. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Science  is,  in  fact,  the  de-personi- 
fication of  myth,  arriving  at  a  rational  idea  of  that 
which  was  orignally  a  fantastic  type  by  divesting 
it  of  its  wrappings  and  symbols.  In  the  natural 
evolution  of  myth,  man  passes  from  the  extrinsic 
mythical  substance  to  the  intrinsic  ideal  by  the  same 
intellectual  process,  and  when  the  types  have  become 
ideas,  he  carries  on  intrinsically  the  entifying  process 
which  he  first  applied  to  the  material  and  external 
phenomena. 

In  this  case  also  the  process  is  gradual;  by 
attempting  a  more  rational  explanation  of  physical 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   195 

phenomena,  man  attains  to  ultimate  conceptions  which 
express  direct  cosmic  laws,  and  he  regards  these 
laws  as  substantial  entities,  which  in  their  originally 
polytheistic  form  were  the  gods  who  directed  all 
things.  Here  the  scientific  myth  really  begins,  since 
natural  forces  and  phenomena  are  no  longer  per- 
sonified in  anthropomorphic  beings  ;  but  the  laws 
or  general  principles  of  physics  are  transformed  into 
material  subjects,  which  are  still  analogous  to  human 
consciousness  and  tendencies,  although  the  idolatrous 
anthropomorphism  has  disappeared. 

The  combination  of  myth  and  science  in  the 
human  mind  does  not  stop  here,  since,  as  I  have 
said,  it  goes  on  to  form  ideal  representations.  When 
thought  penetrates  more  deeply  into  the  physical  laws 
of  the  universe,  and  is  also  more  rationally  engaged 
in  the  psychical  examination  of  man's  own  nature, 
ideas  are  classified  in  more  general  types,  as  in  the 
primitive  construction  of  fetishes,  anthropomorphic 
idols,  and  physical  principles;  and  in  this  way  an 
explicit  and  purely  ideal  system  is  formed,  in  which 
the  images  correspond  with  the  fanciful  and  physical 
types  which  were  previously  created. 

It  usually  happens  that  thought,  by  the  innate 
faculty  of  which  we  have  so  often  spoken,  regards  the 
ideas  produced  by  this  complex  mental  labour  as 
material  entities  endowed  with  eternal  and  inde- 
pendent existence ;  and  this  produced  the  Platonic 
teaching,  the  schools  in  Greece  and  Italy,  and  other 


196  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

brilliant  illustrations  of  this  phase  of  thought. 
Such  teaching,  the  result  of  explicit  reflection,  is  a 
rival  of  the  critical  science  which  followed  from  it. 
It  is  always  active,  while  constantly  varying  and 
assuming  fresh  forms ;  and  it  not  only  flourishes  in 
our  time  in  the  religions  in  which  it  finds  a  suitable 
soil,  but  also,  as  we  shall  see,  in  science  itself. 

In  addition  to  this  complex  evolution  of  myth  as  a 
whole,  special  myths  follow  similar  laws ;  since  they 
are  generated  from  the  same  facts,  and  pass  through 
the  same  phases,  they  culminate  in  a  partial  ideality, 
and  this  involves  a  simple  and  comprehensive  law  of 
the  phenomena  in  question,  and  even  a  moral  or  pro- 
vidential order.  For  example,  we  may  trace  the  Pro- 
methean myth  to  the  end  of  the  Hellenic  era,  and  the 
different  phases  and  final  extinction  of  this  particular 
myth  are  quite  apparent. 

The  origin  of  the  myth,  which  was  directly  con- 
nected with  the  perception  of  the  natural  phenomena 
of  light  and  heat,  was  due  to  the  same  causes  as  all 
others,  but  we  will  consider  it  in  its  Vedic  phase,  as  it 
may  be  gathered  from  tradition,  and  from  the  dis- 
coveries of  comparative  philology,  and  we  have  a  sure 
guide  in  this  research  in  the  great  linguist  Kuhn, 
whose  remarks  have  been  enlarged  and  illustrated  by 
Baudry. 

The  Sanscrit  word  for  the  act  of  producing  fire  by 
friction  is  manthdmi,  to  rub  or  agitate,  and  this 
appears  from  its  derivative  mandala,  a  circle ;  that  is, 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.    197 

circular  friction.  The  pieces  of  wood  used  for  the 
production  of  fire  were  called  pramantha,  that  which 
revolves,  and  arani  was  the  disc  on  which  the  friction 
was  made.  In  this  phase,  the  fetishes  are,  according 
to  our  theory,  in  the  second  stage.  The  Greeks  and 
Komans,  and  indeed  almost  all  other  peoples,  knew  no 
other  way  of  kindling  a  fire,  and  in  the  sacred  rites  of 
the  Peruvians  the  task  was  assigned  to  the  Incas  at 
the  annual  festival  of  fire.  The  wood  of  the  oak  was 
used  in  Germany,  on  account  of  the  red  colour  of  its 
bark,  which  led  to  the  supposition  that  the  god  of  fire 
was  concealed  in  it*  Tan  is  called  lohe,  or  flame,  in 
Germany.  This  primitive  mode  of  kindling  a  fire 
was  known  to  the  Aryans  before  their  dispersion,  and 
friction  with  this  object  was  equivalent  to  the  birth  of 
the  fire-god,  constraining  him  to  come  down  to  earth 
from  the  air,  from  thunder,  etc. ;  indeed  fire  was  also 
called  diita,  the  messenger  between  heaven  and  earth. 
The  question  arose  who  had  drawn  fire  from  heaven, 
and  developed  it  in  the  arani.  A.  resemblance  was 
also  traced  between  the  instruments  for  kindling  fire 
and  the  organs  of  generation,  a  reciprocal  interchange 
of  various  myths,  as  we  have  before  observed.  Agni 
is  concealed  in  arani,  like  the  embryo  in  the  womb 
(Kig-Veda).  •  Thus  pramantha  is  the  masculine  instru- 
ment, arani  the  feminine,  and  the  act  of  uniting  them 
is  copulation. 

Agni  had  disappeared  from  earth  and  was  concealed 
in  a  cavern,  whence  it  was  drawn  by  a  divine  person ; 


198  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

that  is,  fire  had  disappeared  and  was  concealed  within 
the  arani,  whence  it  was  extracted  by  the  pramantha  and 
bestowed  upon  man.  Mdtariqvan,  the  divine  deliverer, 
is  therefore  only  the  personification  of  the  male  organ. 
In  virtue  of  the  idea  that  the  soul  is  a  spark,  and 
that  the  production  of  fire  resembles  generation, 
Bhrigu,  lightning,  is  a  creator.  The  son  of  Bhrigu 
marries  the  daughter  of  Manu,  and  they  have  a  son 
who  at  his  birth  breaks  his  mother's  thigh,  and  there- 
fore takes  the  name  of  Aurva  (from  uru,  a  thigh). 
This  is  only  the  lightning  which  rends  the  clouds 
asunder. 

Many  Graeco-Latin  myths,  beginning  with  that  of 
Prometheus,  must  be  referred  to  Mdtariqvan  and  to  the 
Bhrigu,  and  we  can  trace  in  the  name  of  Prometheus 
the  equivalent  of  a  Sanscrit  form  prdmathyus,  one  who 
obtains  fire  by  friction.  Prometheus  is,  in  fact,  the 
ravisher  of  celestial  fire  (a  phase  of  the  polytheistic 
myth  in  a  perfectly  human  formal ;  he  is  a  divine 
pramantha.  It  is  Prometheus  who  in  one  version  of 
the  myth  cleaves  open  the  head  of  Zeus,  and  causes 
Athene,  the  goddess  who  uses  the  lightning  as  her 
spear,  to  issue  from  it.  The  Greeks  afterwards  carried 
on  the  evolution  of  myth  in  its  transition  from  the 
physical  to  the  moral  phenomenon,  and,  forgetful  of 
his  origin,  they  made  Prometheus  into  a  seer.  As 
Bhrigu,  he  created  man  of  earth  and  water,  and 
breathed  into  him  the  spark  of  life.  Villemarque  tells 
us  that  in  Celtic  antiquity  there  was  an  analogous 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   199 

myth,  as  we  might  naturally  expect,  since  the  Celts 
belong  to  the  Aryan  stock ;  Gwenn-Aran  (albus 
superus)  was  a  supernatural  being  which  issued  like 
lightning  from  a  cloud. 

The  more  thoughtful  Greeks  did  not  limit  the 
Promethean  myth  to  the  idol  and  to  anthropomorphic 
fancies,  but  it  passed  into  a  moral  conception,  and  we 
have  a  proof  of  this  transition  in  .ZEschylus. 

In  fact,  as  Silvestro  Centofonti  observes  in  a  lecture 
on  the  characteristics  of  Greek  literature,  the  grand 
figure  of  the  ^Eschylean  Prometheus  is  a  poetic 
personification  of  Thought,  and  of  its  mysterious  fates 
in  the  sphere  of  life  as  a  whole.  First,  in  its  eternal 
existence,  as  a  primitive  and  organic  force  in  the 
system  of  the  world;  then  in  the  order  of  human 
things,  fettered  by  the  bonds  of  civilization,  and  sub- 
ject to  the  necessities,  lusts,  and  evils  which  constantly, 
arise  from  the  union  of  soul  and  matter  in  unsatisfied 
mortals.  Thought  is  itself  the  source  of  tormenting 
cares  in  this  earthly  slavery,  yet  the  sense  of  power 
makes  it  invincible,  firm  in  its  purpose  to  endure  all 
sufferings,  to  be  superior  to  all  events;  assured  of 
future  freedom,  and  always  on  the  way  to  achieve  it 
by  reverting  to  the  grandeur  of  its  innate  perfection ; 
finally  attaining  to  this  happy  state,  by  shaking  off  all 
the  enslaving  bonds  and  anxious  cares  of  the  kingdom 
of  Zeus,  and  by  obtaining  a  perfect  life  through  the 
inspirations  of  wisdom,  when  the  revolutions  of  the 
heavens  should  fill  the  earth  with  divine  power,  and 


200  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

restore  the  happiness  of  primeval  times.  It  is  evident 
that  in  this  stupendous  tragedy  ^Eschylus  is  leading 
us  to  the  truth  in  a  threefold  sense :  aesthetic,  morally 
political,  and  cosmic.  The  supreme  idea  which  sums 
up  the  whole  value  of  the  composition  is  perhaps  that 
of  an  inevitable  reciprocity  of  action  and  reaction 
between  mind  and  effective  force,  between  the  primi- 
tive providence  of  nature  and  the  subsequent  laws  of 
art,  both  in  the  civilization  of  mankind  and  in  the 
order  and  life  of  the  universe. 

In  this  way  the  evolution  of  the  special  myth  was 
transformed  into  poetry  by  the  interweaving,  collection, 
and  fusion  with  other  myths,  and  in  the  minds  .of 
a  higher  order  it  was  resolved  into  an  allegory  or 
symbol  of  the  forces  of  nature,  into  providential  laws 
or  a  moral  conception. 

This  law  of  progressive  transformation  also  occurs 
in  the  successive  modifications  of  the  special  meaning 
of  words,  so  far  as  they  indicate  not  only  the  thing 
itself,  but  the  image  which  gave  rise  to  the  primitive 
roots.  For  a  long  while,  those  who  heard  the  word 
were  not  only  conscious  of  the  object  which  it  repre- 
sented, but  of  its  image,  which  thus  became  a  source  of 
aesthetic  enjoyment  to  them.  As  time  went  on,  this 
image  was  no  longer  reproduced,  and  the  bare  indica- 
tion remained,  until  the  word  gradually  lost  all 
material  representation,  and  became  an  algebraical 
sign,  which  merely  recalled  the  object  in  question  to 
the  mind. 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   201 

When,  for  example,  we  now  use  the  word  (coltello), 
coulter,  the  instrument  indicated  by  this  phonetic  sign 
immediately  recurs  to  the  mind  and  nothing  else; 
the  intelligence  would  see  no  impropriety  in  the  use 
of  some  other  sign  if  it  were  generally  intelligible. 
But  in  the  times  of  primitive  speech,  the  inventors 
of  this  rude  instrument  were  conscious  of  the  material 
image  which  gave  rise  to  it,  and  they  were  likewise 
conscious  of  all  the  cognate  images  which  diverged 
from  the  same  root,  and  in  this  way  a  brief  but  vivid 
drama  was  presented  to  the  imagination. 

If  we  examine  this  word  with  Pictet  and  others, 
we  shall  find  that  the  name  of  the  plough  comes  from 
the  Sanscrit  krt,  krnt,  kart,  to  cleave  or  divide. 
Hence  krntatra,  a  plough  or  dividing  instrument. 
The  root  krt  subsequently  became  kut  or  kutt,  to 
which  we  must  refer  kuta,  kutaka,  the  body  of  the 
plough.  This  root  krt,  kart,  is  found  in  many 
European  languages  in  the  general  sense  of  cutting 
or  breaking,  as  in  the  old  Slav  word  kratiti,  to  cut 
off.  It  is  also  applied  to  labour  and  its  instruments  : 
kartoti,  to  plough  over  again,  karta,  a  line  or  furrow, 
and  in  the  Vedic  Sanscrit,  karta,  a  ditch  or  hole. 
Hence  the  Latin  culter,  a  saw,  cultellus,  a  coulter, 
and  the  Sanscrit  kartari,  a  coulter.  The  Slav 
words  for  the  mole  which  burrows  in  the  earth  are 
connected  with  the  root  krt,  or  the  Slav  krat.  In 
very  remote  times,  men  not  only  understood  the 
object  indicated  in  the  word  for  a  coulter,  but  they 


202  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

were  sensible  of  the  image  of  the  primitive  krt  and 
its  affixes,  which  were  likewise  derived  from  the 
primitive  images,  and  with  these  they  included  the 
cognate  images  of  the  several  derivatives  from 
the  root.  In  these  days  the  word  coulter  and  the 
Sanscrit  kartari  are  simply  signs  or  phonetic  nota- 
tions, insignificant  in  themselves,  and  everything  else 
has  disappeared.  But  in  primitive  times  an  image 
animated  the  word,  which  by  the  necessary  faculty 
of  perception  so  often  described  was  transformed  into 
a  kind  of  subject  which  effected  the  action  indicated 
by  the  root.  As  this  personality  gradually  faded 
away,  the  actual  representation  of  the  image  was 
lost,  and  even  its  remote  echo  finally  vanished,  while 
the  phonetic  notation  remained,  devoid  of  life  and 
memory,  and  without  the  recurrence  of  cognate  images 
which  strengthened  the  original  idea  by  association. 
All  words  undergo  the  like  evolution,  and  this  may 
be  called  the  mythical  evolution  of  speech. 

Thus  the  Sanscrit  word  for  daughter  is  duhitar ; 
in  Persian  it  is  dochtar,  in  Greek  Qvyarrip,  in  Gothic 
dauhtar,  in  German  Tochter.  The  word  is  derived 
from  the  root  duh,  to  milk,  since  this  was  the  girl's 
business  in  a  pastoral  family.  The  sign  still  remains, 
but  it  has  lost  its  meaning,  since  the  image  and  the 
drama  have  vanished.  This  analysis  applies  to  all 
languages,  and  it  may  also  be  traced  in  the  words 
for  numbers.  The  number  five,  for  example,  among 
the  Aryans  and  in  many  other  tongues,  signifies 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   203 

hand.  This  is  the  case  in  Thibet,  in  Siam,  and 
cognate  languages,  in  the  Indian  Archipelago  and  in 
the  whole  of  Oceania,  in  Africa,  and  in  many  of  the 
American  peoples  and  tribes,  where  it  is  the  origin 
of  the  decimal  system.  In  Homer  we  find  the  verb 
7T£jU7ra?£tv,  to  count  in  fives,  and  then  for  counting  in 
general ;  in  Lapland  lokket,  and  in  Finland  lukea,  to 
count,  is  derived  from  lokke,  ten ;  and  the  Bambarese 
adang,  to  count,  is  the  origin  of  tank,  ten. 

When  the  numerical  idea  of  five  was  first  grasped, 
the  conception  was  altogether  material,  and  was  ex- 
pressed by  the  image  of  the  five-fingered  hand.  In 
the  mind  of  the  earliest  rude  calculators,  the  number 
five  was  presented  to  them  as  a  material  hand,  and 
the  word  involved  a  real  image,  of  which  they  became 
conscious  in  uttering  it.  The  number  and  the  hand 
were  consequently  fused  together  in  their  respective 
images,  and  signified  something  actually  combined 
together,  which  effected  in  a  material  form  the  genesis 
of  this  numerical  representation.  But  the  material 
entity  gradually  disappeared,  the  image  faded  and 
was  divested  of  its  personality,  and  only  the  phonetic 
notation  five  remained,  which  no  longer  recalls  a 
hand,  the  origin  of  the  several  numerals,  nor  words 
connected  with  it.  It  is  now  a  mere  sign,  apart  from 
any  rational  idea.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
other  numerals. 

We  give  these  few  examples,  which  apply  to 
all  words,  since  they  all  follow  the  same  course, 


204  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

beginning  with  the  real  and  primitive  image,  sub- 
jectively effecting  their  peculiar  meaning.  Hence  we 
see  how  the  intrinsic  law  of  myth  is  evolved  in  every 
human  act  in  diverse  ways,  but  always  with  the  same 
results. 

In  fact,  before  articulate  speech,  for  which  man 
was  adapted  by  his  organs  and  physiological  con- 
ditions, was  formulated  into  words  for  things  and 
words  for  shape,  man  like  animals  thought  in  images ; 
he  associated  and  dissociated,  he  composed  and  de- 
composed, he  moved  and  removed  images,  which 
sufficed  for  all  individual  and  immediate  operations 
of  his  mind.  The  relations  of  things  were  felt,  or 
rather  seen  through  his  inward  representation  of  them 
as  in  a  picture,  expressing  in  a  material  form  the  re- 
spective positions  of  figures  and  objects  which,  since 
they  are  remote  from  him,  can  only  be  expressed  by 
such  words  as  nearer,  lower  or  higher,  faint  or  dear, 
by  more  vivid  or  paler  tints,  such  as  we  see  in  a 
running  stream,  in  the  forms  of  clouds,  in  the  reci- 
procal relations  of  all  objects  represented  in  painting. 

In  order  to  understand  the  primeval  process  of 
thought  by  means  of  images,  it  is  necessary  to 
conceive  such  a  picture  as  living  and  mobile,  and 
constantly  forming  a  fresh  combination  of  parts. 
Animals  have  not,  and  primeval  man  had  not,  the 
phonetic  signs  or  words  which  give  an  individual 
character  to  the  images,  and  so  represent  them  that  by 
combining  these  images  in  an  articulate  form,  thought 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   205 

may  be  represented  by  signs ;  and  in  and  through 
these  a  universal  and  objective  mode  of  exercising  the 
intellectual  faculty  of  reasoning  has  been  created. 

Speech  can,  by  means  of  reflex  memory,  produce 
at  will  the  particular  images  already  classified  in  the 
mind,  and  this  makes  the  process  of  reasoning  pos- 
sible ;  since  such  a  process  becomes  more  easy  by 
the  use  of  signs  to  which  the  attention  can  revert. 
The  relative  size  of  objects,  and  the  like  qualities, 
which  are  at  first  regarded  as  so  many  different  intui- 
tions in  space,  are  defined  by  words_or_  gestures, 
and  are  thus  subjected  to  comparative  analogy ;  but 
in  the  early  stages  of  language  these  relations  were 
presented  in  an  extrinsic  form  by  phonetic  signs,  and 
became  images  which  in  some  sort  represented  one 
particular  state  of  consciousness  with  respect  to  the 
two  things  compared.  Galton,  speaking  of  the 
Damaras,  tells  us  that  they  find  great  difficulty  in 
counting  more  than  five,  since  they  have  not  another 
hand  with  which  to  grasp  the  fingers  which  represent 
the  units.  When  they  lose  any  of  their  cattle,  they 
do  not  discover  the  loss  by  the  diminution  of  the 
number,  but  by  missing  a  familiar  object.  If  two 
packets  of  tobacco  are  given  to  them  as  the  regulation 
price  of  a  sheep,  they  will  be  altogether  at  a  loss  to 
understand  the  receipt  of  four  packets  in  exchange 
for  two  sheep.  Such  examples  might  be  multiplied 
to  any  extent. 

We  repeat  that  when  not  endowed  with  speech,  or 


206  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

some  analogous  means,  animals  and  man  think  in 
images,  and  the  relations  between  these  images  are 
observed  in  the  simultaneousness  and  succession  of 
their  real  differences ;  these  images  are  combined, 
associated,  and  compared  by  the  development  of  reflex 
power,  and  hence  arises  the  estimate  of  their  concrete 
relations.  Of  this  we  have  another  proof,  observed  by 
Romanes  in  a  lecture  on  the  intelligence  of  animals, 
and  confirmed  by  myself,  in  the  condition  of  deaf- 
mutes  before  they  are  educated,  in  whose  case  the  ex- 
trinsic sign  and  figure  takes  the  place  of  the  phonetic 
and  articulate  sign.  Where  speech  is  wanting,  it  is  still 
possible  to  follow  a  conscious  and  imaginative  process 
of  reasoning,  but  not  to  rise  to  the  higher  abstract 
ideas  which  may  be  generated  by  such  reasoning. 
The  thought  of  deaf-mutes  always  assumes  the  most 
concrete  form,  and  one  who  was  educated  late  in  life 
informed  Eomanes  that  he  had  always  before  thought 
in  images.  I  know  no  instance  of  a  deaf-mute  who 
has  independently  attained  to  an  advanced  intel- 
lectual stage,  or  who  has  been  able  without  education 
to  form  any  conception  of  a  supernatural  world.  K. 
S.  Smith  asserts  that  one  of  his  deaf-mute  pupils 
believed,  before  his  education,  that  the  Bible  had 
been  printed  in  the  heavens  by  a  printing  press  of 
enormous  power ;  and  Graham  Bell  speaks  of  a  deaf- 
mute  who  supposed  that  people  went  to  church  to 
do  honour  to  the  clergyman.  In  short,  the  intellectual 
condition  of  uneducated  deaf-mutes  is  on  a  level  with 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   207 

that  of  animals,  as  far  as  the  possibility  of  forming 
abstract  ideas  is  concerned,  and  they  think  in  images. 
There  is  a  well-known  instance  in  the  deplorable 
condition  of  Laura  Bridgman,  who  from  the  time  she 
was  two  years  old,  was  deaf  and  dumb,  blind,  and 
even  without  the  sense  of  taste,  so  that  the  sense  of 
touch  was  all  that  remained.  By  persevering  and 
tender  instruction,  she  attained  to  an  intellectual 
condition  which  was  relatively  high.  'A  careful  study 
of  her  case  showed  that  she  had  been  altogether  with- 
out intuitive  knowledge  of  causes,  of  the  absolute,  and 
of  God.  Howe  doubts  whether  she  had  any  idea  of 
space  and  time,  but  this  was  not  absolutely  proved, 
since  as  far  as  distance  was  concerned,  she  seemed 
to  estimate  it  by  muscular  sensation.  Everything 
showed  that  she  thought  in  images.  Although  with- 
out any  sensation  of  light  or  sound,  she  made  certain 
noises  in  her  throat  to  indicate  different  people  when 
she  was  conscious  of  their  presence  or  when  she 
thought  of  them,  so  that  she  was  naturally  impelled 
to  express  every  thought  or  sensation,  not  externally 
perceived,  by  a  sign;  and  this  shows  the  tendency 
of  every  idea  and  image  towards  an  extrinsic  form. 
She  often  conversed  with  herself,  generally  making 
signs  with  one  hand  and  replying  with  the  other. 
It  was  evident  that  a  muscular  sign  or  the  motion  of 
the  fingers  was  substituted  for  the  phonetic  signs  of 
speech,  and  in  this  way  ideas  and  images  received 
their  necessarily  extrinsic  form.  The  image  was  em- 
10 


208  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

bodied  in  a  muscular  act  and  motion,  and  in  this  way 
thought  had  its  concrete  representation.  The  same 
results  would,  as  far  as  we  know,  he  obtained  from 
others  in  the  same  unhappy  conditions  as  Laura 
Bridgman. 

It  is  therefore  clear  that  primitive  language  was 
only  a  vocal  and  individual  sign  of  material  images, 
and  it  was  for  a  long  while  restricted  to  these  con- 
crete limits.  Since  the  vocal  signs  of  the  relations 
of  things  are  less  easily  expressed,  these  relations 
were  at  first  set  forth  by  gestures,  by  a  movement  of 
the  whole  person,  and  especially  of  the  hands  and 
face.  This  preliminary  action  is  helped  by  the 
imitative  faculty  with  which  children  and  uncultured 
peoples  are  more  especially  endowed,  of  which  we 
have  also  instances  in  the  higher  animals  nearest  to 
man.  The  negroes  imitate  the  gestures,  clothing,  and 
customs  of  white  men  in  the  most  extraordinary  and 
grotesque  manner,  and  so  do  the  natives  of  New 
Zealand.  The  Kamschatkans  have  a  great  power  of 
imitating  other  men  and  animals,  and  this  is  also  the 
case  with  the  inhabitants  of  Vancouver.  Herndon  was 
astonished  by  the  mimic  arts  of  the  Brazilian  Indians, 
and  Wilkes  made  the  same  observation  on  the  Pata- 
gonians.  This  faculty  is  still  more  apparent  in  the 
lower  races.  Many  travellers  have  spoken  of  the 
extraordinary  tendency  to  imitation  among  the  Fue- 
gians  ;  and,  according  to  Monat,  the  Andaman 
islanders  are  not  less  disposed  to  mimicry  and  imita- 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   209 

tion.  Mitchell  states  that  the  Australians  possess 
the  same  power. 

This  fact  also  applies  to  the  languages  of  ex- 
tremely rude  and  savage  peoples.  Some  American 
Indians,  for  instance,  help  out  their  sentences  and 
make  them  intelligible  by  contortion  of  their  features 
and  other  gesticulations,  and  the  same  observation 
was  made  by  Schweinwurth  of  an  African  tribe.  The 
language  of  the  Bosjesmanns  requires  so  many  signs 
to  make  the  meaning  of  their  words  intelligible 
that  it  cannot  be  understood  in  the  dark.  These 
facts  partly  explain  the  natural  genesis  of  human 
languages. 

We  have  learned  from  our  earlier  observations 
that  phenomena  appear  to  the  perceptive  faculty  of 
primitive  "man  as  subjects  endowed  with  power.  The 
subjectivity  of  these  phenomena,  their  intrinsic  con- 
ditions and  actions  are  fused  into  speech,  which  is 
their  living  and  conscious  symbol;  and  it  is  clear 
that  the  evolution  of  language  from  the  concrete  to 
the  symbolical,  and  hence  to  the  simple  sign  of  the 
object,  divested  of  its  original  power,  is  analogous  to 
that  of  myth. 

This  law  of  evolution  also  applies  to  the  art  of 
writing,  which  is  at  first  only  the  precise  copy  of  the 
image  ;  it  is  next  transformed  into  an  analogous 
symbol,  and  then  into  an  alphabetical  sign,  which 
serves  as  the  simple  expression  of  the  conception, 
divested  of  its  originally  representative  faculty. 


210  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Hence  it  is  apparent  that  the  evolution  of  myth 
conforms  to  the  general  law  of  the  evolution  of  human 
thought,  of  all  its  products  and  arts  in  their  manifold 
ramifications.  From  the  image,  the  informing  subject, 
from  the  conception  and  the  myth,  the  necessary 
cycle  is  accomplished  in  regular  phases,  wherever  the 
ethnic  temperament  and  capacity  and  extrinsic  circum- 
stances permit  it,  until  the  rational  idea  is  reached, 
the  sign  or  cipher  which  becomes  the  powerful  instru- 
ment of  the  exercise  and  generalization  of  thought. 

In  order  to  show  the  efficacy  of  the  mythical  and 
scientific  faculty  of  thought  comprised  in  the  systems 
of  ancient  and  modern  philosophy,  and  its  slow 
progress  towards  positive  and  rational  science,  we  will 
adduce  an  instance  from  the  people  in  whom  such 
an  evolution  was  accomplished,  aided  by  all  the 
civilized  peoples  in  reciprocal  communication  with 
them.  Let  us  see  how  this  faculty  was  manifested 
in  the  Greeks  at  a  time  when  they  first  attempted 
to  reduce  the  earlier  and  scanty  knowledge  of  nature 
to  a  system. 

In  Greece  the  historical  course  of  this  faculty 
ramified  into  two  classes  of  research,  which  were  at 
that  time  objective,  the  Ionic  and  the  Pythagorean 
schools.  In  the  former,  the  phenomenon  and  nature 
were  assumed  to  be  the  direct  object  of  knowledge, 
while  in  the  latter  the  object  in  view  was  the  idea 
and  harmony  of  things.  Influenced  by  earlier  and 
popular  traditions,  a  mythical  and  philosophic  system 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.   211 

arose  in  the  Ionic  school,  which  was  exclusively 
devoted  to  physical  speculations.  In  Lower  Italy, 
on  the  contrary,  and  in  colonies  which  were  for  the 
most  part  Doric,  a  science  was  constituted  which, 
although  it  included  physics  and  natural  phe- 
nomena, did  not  only  consider  their  material  value, 
but  sought  to  extract  from  their  laws  and  harmony 
a  criterion  of  good  and  evil.  Kitter  observes  that 
the  intimate  connection  between  the  Pythagorean 
philosophy  and  lyrical  music — of  which  the  origin 
was  sought  as  a  clue  to  explain  the  world — shows 
how  far  this  philosophy  was  consonant  with  Doric 
thought.  This  historic  process  is  quite  natural, 
since  the  speculations  of  philosophy  are  first  directed 
to  physical  phenomena,  as  they  are  displayed  in 
inward  and  in  external  life,  and  then  rise  to  the 
consideration  of  specific  types,  in  a  word,  to  the 
general  and  the  universal. 

Throughout  this  philosophical  evolution  the  con- 
sideration is  mainly  from  the  objective  point  of  view, 
and  this  is  in  conformity  with  the  intellectual  evolu- 
tion of  reason,  since  the  mind  is  first  occupied  with 
the  knowledge  of  things.  In  accordance  with  tradition 
and  the  logic  of  things,  Ionic  speculation  was  developed 
before  the  Doric.  The  Eleatic  school  followed  from 
the  two  former,  although  its  development  was 
contemporary  with  the  more  perfect  stage  of  these, 
and  its  influence  upon  them  was  to  some  extent 
reactionary. 


212  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Thales  taught  that  everything  was  derived  from 
one  unique  principle,  namely  water.  The  ancients 
believed  that  the  land  was  separated  from  the  water 
by  a  primitive  and  mythical  process,  a  belief  which 
had  its  source  in  the  appearance  of  aqueous  and 
meteorological  phenomena;  so  that  the  teaching  of 
Thales  followed  the  earliest  popular  traditions,  of 
which  we  find  traces  in  the  Indies,  in  Egypt,  in  the 
book  of  Genesis,  and  in  many  legends  diffused  through 
the  world  even  in  modern  times.  He  said  that 
everything  was  nourished  by  moisture,  from  which 
heat  itself  was  derived,  and  that  moisture  was  the 
seed  of  all  things ;  that  water  is  the  origin  of  this 
moisture,  and  since  all  things  are  derived  from  it 
it  is  the  primitive  principle  of  the  world.  We  see 
how  much  this  theory  is  concerned  with  natural 
phenomena  in  their  life,  nutrition,  and  birth  by 
means  of  seed.  He  regarded  the  world  as  a  living 
being,  which  had  been  evolved  from  an  imperfect 
germ  of  moisture.  This  mode  of  animating  the 
world,  which  consists  in  tracing  the  development  of  a 
germ  already  in  existence,  reappears  in  other  parts 
of  his  philosophy.  He  saw  life  in  the  appearance  of 
death,  and  held  the  loadstone  and  yellow  amber  to 
be  animate  bodies,  declaring  generally  that  the  world 
is  alive,  and  filled  with  demons  and  genii.* 

We  trace  the  basis  of  these  ideas  in  traditions 
prior  to  Thales,  declaring  the  world  to  be  a  living 

*  Aristot.,  De  anima ;  Cic.,  De  legibus ;  Diog.,  Lae. 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  213 

being,  and  that  everything  was  derived  from  a 
primitive  condition  of  germs.  The  same  opinion 
was  held  by  Hippo,  by  Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  by 
Heraclitus,  and  by  Anaxagoras.  Aristotle  states 
that  the  theory  of  development  by  germs  was  ex- 
tremely ancient  in  his  time.  The  other  philosophers 
of  the  Ionic  and  successive  schools  mingled  these 
fanciful  ideas  with  the  systematic  arrangement  of  their 
theories  as  to  the  origin  and  constitution  of  the  world, 
so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  them,  since  the 
method  and  conceptions  are  identical. 

It  is  evident  from  this  sketch  that  while  thought 
gradually  evolved  a  more  rational  system  of  general 
knowledge,  the  earlier  idols  and  primitive  mythical 
interpretations  were  not  abandoned,  although  they 
assumed  a  larger  and  more  scientific  form.  Thales 
and  others  assigned  a  mechanical  origin  to  things, 
such  as  water,  fire,  or  the  like,  which  was  contrary 
to  anthropomorphic  ideas  ;  yet  they  still  regarded  the 
world  as  a  living  being,  developed  and  perfected  by 
the  same  laws  and  functions  as  all  plants  and 
animals,  and  they  peopled  it  with  genii  and  demons, 
thus  handing  on  the  earliest  and  rudest  traditions 
of  the  race. 

While  the  scientific  faculty  was  gathering  strength 
and  leading  the  way  to  a  more  rational  considera- 
tion of  the  world  and  natural  phenomena,  really  ad- 
vancing beyond  the  earlier  ideas  which  had  been 
almost  wholly  mythical,  myth  was  still  the  matrix  of 


214  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

thought,  although  its  envelopment  was  partly  rent 
asunder  and  was  becoming  transparent.  From  this 
brief  notice  of  the  Ionic  philosophy,  sufficient  for 
our  purpose,  let  us  return  to  the  Pythagorean  school, 
in  which,  although  the  faculty  at  work  is  essentially 
objective,  there  is  a  closer  consideration  of  the  analo- 
gies between  thought  and  the  world,  and  the  ground 
is  more  often  retraced,  so  that  theory  assumes  a  more 
intellectual  form. 

The  Pythagoreans  represented  the  origin  of  the 
world  as  the  union  of  the  two  opposite  principles  of 
the  illimitable  and  the  limited,  of  the  equal  and  the 
unequal.  Yet  they  conceive  this  to  be  a  primitive 
union,  since  they  formulated  the  supreme  principle 
as  equal — unequal,  (Arist.  Met.  xii.  7.)  They  held 
the  infinite  to  be  the  place  of  the  one.  There  was  an 
attraction  between  the  two  principles,  which  was 
termed  the  act  of  breathing ;  hence  the  void  entered 
into  the  world  and  separated  things  from  each  other. 
Thus  their  conception  of  the  world  was  that  of  a 
concourse  of  opposite  principles.  They  represented 
its  limits  as  a  unity  and  as  the  true  beginning  of 
multiplicityc  They  regarded  the  development  of  the 
world  as  a  process  of  life  regulated  by  the  primitive 
principles  contained  in  the  world ;  its  breath  or  life 
depended  on  the  breaking  forth  of  the  infinite  void  in 
Uranus,  and  the  time  which  is  termed  the  interval 
of  all  nature  penetrates  at  once  and  with  the  breath 
into  the  world.  All  therefore  emanates  from  one, 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  215 

and  all  is  at  the  same  time  governed  by  one  supreme 
power.  Number  is  everything,  and  is  the  essence  of 
things,  but  the  triad  includes  all  number,  since  it 
contains  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end.  Everything 
is  derived  from  the  primitive  one  and  from  the 
principal  number ;  and  since  this  number  in  breath- 
ing its  vital  evolution  into  the  void  is  divided  into 
many  units,  everything  is  derived  from  the  multiplicity 
of  these  units  or  numbers. 

Since,  by  his  idea  of  the  source  of  universal  order, 
Pythagoras  partly  accepted  the  theocosmic  monad 
as  the  final  and  necessary  root  of  all  life,  and  of  all 
that  is  knowable,  he  could  not  fail  to  see  the  converti- 
bility of  the  unit  into  the  Being.  But  if  the  unit  must 
always  precede  the  manifold,  there  is  a  first  unit  from 
which  all  the  others  proceed;  if  this  first  and  eternal 
unit  is  at  the  same  time  the  absolute  being,  it 
follows  that  number  and  the  world  have  a  common 
origin  and  a  common  essence,  and  that  the  intrinsic 
causes  and  possible  combinations  of  number  are 
virtually  accomplished  in  the  development  of  the 
world,  and  these  causes  and  combinations  are  ideal 
forms  of  this  development.  The  monad  is  developed 
by  these  laws  through  all  the  generative  processes  of 
nature,  while  at  the  same  time  it  remains  eternal  in 
the  system  of  the  universe ;  so  that  things  not  only 
have  their  origin  and  essence,  their  place  and  time 
according  to  numerical  causes,  but  each  is  in  effect  a 
number  as  far  as  its  individual  properties  and  the 


2J6  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

universal  process  of  cosmic  life  are  concerned.  The 
reason  of  the  number  must  depend  upon  the  substance, 
by  the  configurations  of  which  it  is  defined,  divided, 
added,  and  multiplied,  and  to  this  geometry  is  added, 
which  measures  all  things  in  relation  to  themselves 
and  others.  This  eternal  cause  makes  it  intelligible 
that  if  immaterial  principles  precede  and  govern  the 
whole  material  world,  it  is  also  by  means  of  these  that 
the  classification  of  science  is  in  intrinsic  agreement 
with  that  of  nature.  Numbers  have  their  value  in 
music,  in  gymnastics,  in  medicine,  in  morals,  in 
politics,  in  all  branches  of  science.  The  Pythagorean 
arithmetic  is  the  bond  and  universal  logic  of  the 
knowable.  But  at  the  same  time  Pythagoras  and  his 
school  peopled  the  world  with  demons  and  genii,  which 
were  the  causes  of  disease ;  they  did  not  abandon  the 
old  mythical  ideas  of  the  incarnation  of  spirits  and  the 
transmigration  of  souls — theories  and  beliefs  which 
recur  in  nearly  all  primitive  and  savage  peoples. 

In  this  vast  Pythagorean  scheme,  which  contrasts 
with  that  of  the  Ionic  school  of  physics,  thought  is 
more  explicitly  freed  from  the  ruder  mythical  ideas, 
and  rises  to  a  more  intelligent  and  rational  conception 
of  the  world,  but  the  ancient  popular  traditions  still 
persist,  and  there  is  an  evident  entification  of  number. 
The  primitive  monad,  numbers,  their  genesis  and 
relations,  are  not  regarded  as  abstract  conceptions, 
necessary  for  understanding  the  order  of  nature,  and 
a  merely  logical  function  of  the  mind ;  they  are  the 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  217 

substantial  essence  which  underlies  all  mythical  repre- 
sentations. Although  the  essential  life  of  the  world  is 
considered  from  a  more  abstract  point  of  view,  yet  the 
mythical  analogy  of  animal  life  evidently  finds  a  place 
in  the  breath  of  the  void  and  of  time,  assumed  to  be 
independent  entities.  The  subsequent  train  of  beliefs 
in  spirits,  of  their  incarnations  and  transmigrations, 
are  closely  connected  with  the  phantasmagoria  of  the 
past,  and  display  their  mythical  genesis  ;  yet  by  their 
deeper  and  more  explicit  thought  they  may  be  said  to 
infuse  intellectual  life  into  the  world  and  into  science 
which  relates  to  it.  In  this  first  rational  classification 
of  science  by  the  Greeks,  both  on  its  physical  and  its 
ideal  side,  thought  sometimes  issues  in  the  simple 
contemplation  of  manifold  nature,  while  it  still  con- 
tinues mythical  in  its  fundamental  conceptions  and 
spiritual  corollaries ;  myth,  however,  instead  of  being 
altogether  anthropomorphic,  begins  to  become  scien- 
tific. 

I  must  here  be  allowed  to  quote  a  hymn  in 
the  Kig-Veda,  which  was  historically  earlier  than  the 
primitive  philosophy  of  Greece,  but  which  reveals 
the  same  tendency,  the  same  mythical  and  scientific 
teaching  in  its  interpretation  of  the  world.  In 
this  hymn,  which  has  been  translated  and  explained 
by  Max  Miiller,  we  see  how  boldly  the  problem  of  the 
origin  of  the  world  is  stated  (hymn  129,  book  x.) — 

"  Nor  Aught  nor  Nought  existed ;  yon  bright  sky 
Was  not,  nor  heaven's  broad  woof  outstretched  above. 


218  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

What  covered  all  ?  what  sheltered  ?  what  concealed  ? 
Was  it  the  water's  fathomless  abyss  ? 
There  was  not  death — yet  was  there  nought  immortal, 
There  was  no  confine  betwixt  day  and  night ; 
The  only  One  breathed  breathless  by  itself, 
Other  than  It  there  nothing  since  has  been. 
Darkness  there  was,  and  all  at  first  was  veiltd 
In  gloom  profound — an  ocean  without  light — 
The  germ  that  still  lay  covered  in  the  husk 
Burst  forth,  one  nature,  from  the  fervent  heat. 
Then  first  came  love  upon  it,  the  new  spring 
Of  mind — yea,  poets  in  their  hearts  discerned, 
Pondering,  this  bond  between  created  things 
And  uncreated.     Comes  this  spark  from  earth, 
Piercing  and  all- pervading,  or  from  heaven? 
Then  seeds  were  sown,  and  mighty  powers  arose — 
Nature  below,  and  power  and  will  above — 
Who  knows  the  secret  ?  who  proclaimed  it  here, 
Whence,  whence  this  manifold  creation  sprang? 
The  gods  themselves  came  later  into  being—- 
Who knows  from  whence  this  great  creation  sprang  ? 
He  from  whom  all  this  great  creation  came, 
Whether  his  will  created  or  was  mute. 
The  Most  High  Seer  that  is  in  highest  heaven, 
He  knows  it — or  perchance  even  He  knows  not." 

It  is  evident  that  in  this  hymn,  the  expression  of  the 
moment  when  human  thought  was  partly  freed  from 
the  earlier  anthropomorphic  ideas,  the  scientific  faculty 
which  attempts  a  rational  explanation  of  the  world  is 
shown ;  and  although  this  is  an  isolated  inspiration  of 
the  prophet,  yet  it  shadows  forth  the  conclusions  to 
which  the  primitive  Hellenic  speculation  came  when 
it  was  deliberately  exerted  to  solve  the  problem  of 
creation.  In  fact,  there  is  here  an  intimation  of  the 
waters,  of  the  void  or  deep  abyss,  as  the  beginnings  of 
the  world ;  of  the  breath  of  the  One,  the  hidden  germ 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  219 

of  things  developed  by  means  of  heat ;  of  productive 
powers  as  a  lower,  and  energy  as  a  higher  form  of 
nature ;  of  conceptions  found  in  the  Ionic,  the  Pytha- 
gorean, and  the  Eleatic  philosophies,  which  all  con- 
verge into  the  one.  All  belong  to  the  same  Aryan 
race. 

The  Vedic  composition  represents  in  Dydvdprthivi 
the  close  connection  between  the  two  divinities,  Heaven 
and  Earth,* the  one  considered  as  the  active  and 
creative  principle,  the  other  as  that  which  is  passive 
and  fertilized:  the  same  ideas,  more  or  less  worked 
out,  underlie  not  only  the  first  philosophies,  but 
successive  theories  and  systems.  The  worship  of 
water,  of  fire,  and  of  air  involved  their  personification, 
and  they  then  became  exciting  principles,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  evolution  which  we  have  laid 
down.  In  the  Eig-Veda,  as  well  as  in  the  Zendavesta, 
the  waters  are  collectively  invoked  by  their  special 
name  dpas,  and  they  are  termed  the  mothers,  the 
divine,  which  contain  the  amrta  or  ambrosia,  and  all 
healing  powers.  In  Agni  and  its  Vedic  transformations 
we  clearly  trace  the  worship  of  fire,  and  its  cosmic 
value.  The  Vedic  worship  of  the  air  is  Vayu,  from  va, 
to  breathe,  who  is  associated  with  the  higher  gods,  and 
especially  with  Indra,  ruler  of  the  atmosphere :  next 
comes  Eudra,  the  god  of  storms,  accompanied  by  the 
Maruti,  the  winds ;  and  in  the  Zendavesta  the  air  is 
invoked  as  an  element.  Hence  we  see  that  a  more 
rational  conception  of  the  genesis  of  the  world  succeeds 


220  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

to  these  earlier  representations  and  personifications  of 
the  elements ;  representations  which  in  another  form 
endure  throughout  the  course  of  human  thought. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  consider  the  other  period  of 
the  mythical  and  scientific  evolution  which  had  its 
definitive  conclusion  in  Plato  and  Aristotle,  teachers 
who  even  now  to  some  extent  influence  the  two  great 
currents  of  speculative  science.  For  us,  however,  it 
is  more  important  to  consider  the  Platonic  teaching 
as  that  in  which  the  mythical  evolution  of  the  earlier 
representations  has  full  and  clear  expression ;  while 
in  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  an  element  of  dissolu- 
tion is  already  at  work  which  throws  some  light  on  the 
illusions  of  the  Platonic  school, 

We  must  hear  in  mind  that  the  spontaneous  and 
even  the  reflective  intellectual  faculty  gradually 
assimilated  special  and  independent  myths  into 
comprehensive  types,  which  referred  to  all  natural 
objects.  Next,  the  incarnation  of  spirits  produced  the 
earliest  forms  of  polytheism,  and  these  were  slowly 
classified  into  more  concentric  circles,  and  finally  into 
a  single  hierarchical  system.  Owing  to  the  attitude 
and  ethnic  temperament  of  the  Greeks,  the  glorious 
anthropomorphism  of  their  Olympus  arose  in  a  more 
vivid  form  than  elsewhere,  and  it  was  impersonated 
in  the  all-powerful  and  all-seeing  Zeus,  ruler  of  the 
world,  of  gods  and  men.  This  process,  modified  in 
a  thousand  ways,  was  carried  on  in  all  races.  Hence 
it  resulted  that  every  object  had  a  type,  its  god ; 


HISTOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  221 

everything  was  typically  individuated  in  an  anthropo- 
morphic entity  in  such  a  way  that  there   arose   a 
natural  dualism  between  the  phenomena,  facts,  and 
cosmic  orders  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other  the 
hierarchy  of  gods  who  represented  them   and   over 
whom  they  presided.    The  Hellenic  philosophies  prior 
to  Plato,  hoth  physical  and  intellectual,  and  also  the 
psychological  morality  of  Socrates,  had  already  accom- 
plished the  first  evolution  of  this  typical  stage  of  uni- 
versal polytheism,   substituting  for  anthropomorphic 
representations  physical  and  intellectual  principles  and 
powers.    Thought  was  educated  in  its  inward  exercise, 
as  well  as  in  the  observation  of  facts  and  ideal  repre- 
sentations.   But — and  this  constituted  the  first  evolu- 
tion of  anthropomorphism  in  general — these  powers 
all  expressed  the  thing  in  its  general  and  phenomenal 
form ;  it  was  endowed  with  merely  zoomorphic  force, 
and  the  world  was  regarded  as  physiologically  living. 
Plato,  impelled  by  the  foregoing  evolution,  and 
by  the  large  and  exquisitely  aesthetic  character  of  his 
genius,  accomplished  the  second  and  altogether  in- 
tellectual stage  of  evolution  by  inverting  the  problem  ; 
he  affirmed  that  the  final  and  intrinsic  result  of  the 
exercise  of  thought  was  its  earlier  and  eternal  essence, 
extrinsic  and  objective.     The  types  which  were  first 
fetishes  and  then  polytheistic  were  transformed  into 
the  physical  and  intellectual  principles  of  the  world, 
divested  of  all  mythical  and  extrinsic  form  as  far  as 
their  material  organization  was  concerned.    Plato  held 


222  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

that  such  types  were  really  ideal,  as  in  fact  they  had 
unconsciously  been  from  the  first ;  that  is,  that  it 
was  simply  a  logical  conception  of  species  and  genera 
which  is  natural  to  human  thought;  a  conception 
necessary  for  the  spontaneous  as  well  as  for  the 
reflex  and  scientific  processes  of  thought.  From  the 
type,  the  specific  idea,  the  generalization  into  the  idea 
of  each  special  object  was  easy,  since  each  object  has 
its  psychical  representation  in  the  mind.  Special 
and  specific  ideas  were  then  arranged  in  a  certain 
order,  and  those  which  are  more  general  in  a  con- 
centric and  systematic  classification ;  this  had  been 
also  the  case  in  the  earlier  polytheistic  system,  since 
the  process  of  the  intelligence  naturally  arranges  all 
its  representations.  But  he  did  not  stop  here,  nor 
indeed  was  it  possible  for  him  to  do  so. 

We  know  that  the  intelligence  does  not  only  under- 
stand objects,  but  their  relations  to  each  other,  by 
means  of  its  comparative  faculty;  these  relations 
were,  as  in  the  case  of  animals,  at  first  intuitively 
perceived  by  direct  observation  and  the  alternate  and 
reciprocal  motion  of  the  images,  and  they  were  first 
presented  to  the  imagination  and  then  embodied  in 
speech.  We  have  said  in  the  foregoing  chapters  that 
in  primitive  thought  these  relations  involved  an  active 
entity,  and  were  in  a  word  entified.  Plato,  pursuing 
his  intellectual  process  of  reasoning,  and  the  re- 
ciprocal properties  of  ideas,  noted  the  ideality  of  these 
relations  so  far  as  they  are  a  psychical  representation, 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  223 

and  hence  he  was  constrained  by  the  unconscious 
evolution  of  thought  to  affirm  that  an  idea  was  present 
in  every  relation,  and  thus  the  great,  the  little,  the 
less,  the  more,  had  their  ideal  representatives  in  the 
general  construction  of  his  theory.  But  man  is  not 
only  an  intellectual,  hut  an  active,  sentient,  living 
being,  tending  to  an  object  as  an  individual  and  a 
social  subject.  So  that  he  not  only  attains  to  the 
understanding  of  ideal  truth,  but  also  of  the  good  and 
the  beautiful.  According  to  Plato,  the  Good  and  the 
Beautiful  must  also  necessarily  be  Ideas  of  a  general 
character,  like  those  which  embrace  all  ideal  relations 
whatever.  Since  they  are  universal,  and  due  'to  the 
innate  impulse  of  thought  towards  concentric  as- 
cension, they  must  rank  as  the  sum  and  apex 
of  ideas,  so  that  the  Good  is  emphatically  the 
Idea,  or  God.  On  turning  to  the  world  of  sensations, 
i  or  of  particular  objects,  ideas  are  the  eternal  model 
(paradigm)  according  to  which  things  are  made  ;  these 
are  the  images  (idoli)  of  which  the  others  are  the 
imperfect  copies  (mimesi).  The  world  of  sense  is 
itself  only  a  symbol,  an  allegory,  a  figure.  As  in 
the  sensible  world  there  is  a  scale  of  beings  from  the 
lowest  to  the  most  perfect,  that  is  to  the  material 
universe,  so  in  the  sphere  of  intellect,  the  type  of  the 
world,  ideas  are  combined  together  by  higher  ideas, 
and  these  again  by  others  still  higher,  and  so  on  to 
the  apex,  the  ultimate,  supreme,  omnipotent  Idea, 
the  Good  which  includes  and  sums  up  the  whole. 


224  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

Plato  holds  that  matter  is  not  the  body,  but  that 
which  may  become  the  body  by  the  plastic  action  of 
the  idea,  as  Weber  well  expresses  it;  matter  con- 
sidered in  itself  is  the  indefinite  (apeiron),  the  in- 
definable (aoriston),  and  the  amorphous,  and  it 
is  co-eternal  with  ideas,  and  inert;  from  the  union 
of  ideas  and  matter  the  cosmos  had  its  origin,  the 
image  of  the  invisible  deity,  God  in  power,  the 
living  organism  (Zoori),  possessing  a  body,  sense,  a 
definite  object,  a  soul.  The  body  of  the  universe  has 
the  form  of  a  sphere,  the  most  beautiful  which  can 
be  conceived  ;  the  circle  described  in  revolving  is  also 
the  most  perfect  motion. 

The  stars  first  had  their  source  in  the  Idea  of 
Good ;  first  the  fixed  stars,  then  the  planets,  then  the 
earth,  created  deities;  the  earth  produced  organized 
beings,  beginning  with  man,  the  crowning  work  and 
object  of  all  the3 rest;  the  fruits  of  the  earth  were 
made  to  nourish  him,  and  animals  were  made  to 
become  the  abode  of  fallen  souls.  Man,  the  micro- 
cosm, is  reason  within  a  soul,  which  is  in  its  turn  con- 
tained in  a  body.  The  whole  body  is  organized  with 
a  view  to  this  reason.  The  head,  the  seat  of  reason, 
is  round  because  this  is  the  most  perfect  form.  The 
breast  is  the  seat  of  generous  passions,  while  the 
bestial  appetites  are  found  in  the  belly  and  intestines. 

The  human  soul,  like  the  soul  of  the  world,  con- 
tains immortal  and  mortal  elements  ;  the  intelligence 
or  reason,  and  sensuality.  The  immortality  of  the 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  225 

soul  is  also  proved  by  the  memory.  The  subsequent 
union  of  life  and  matter  in  the  production  of  the 
universe  is  the  work  of  an  intermediate,  equivocal 
being,  the  demiurgos.  Thus  Plato  opposes  the  eternity 
of  the  intelligence  to  Ionic  materialism,  and  the 
eternity  of  matter  to  the  monistic  theory  of  the  j 
Eleatics. 

In  the  genesis  of  nature  we  again  find  the  syn- 
thetic conception  of  the  elements,  which  he  estimates 
to  be  four;  to  which  geometrical  forms  correspond, 
and  the  world  was  finally  organized  after  its  human 
type.  He  divides  the  soul  into  several  distinct  and 
independent  powers,  which  are  ever  revolving  be- 
tween life  and  death  :  they  inhabit  the  stars  and 
depend  upon  them,  since  the  soul  which  has  been 
righteous  on  earth  will  be  happy  after  death  in  the  star 
to  which  it  was  originally  destined ;  but  those  who 
on  earth  only  desire  here  bodily  pleasures  will  wander 
as  shades  round  the  tombs,  or  will  migrate  into  the 
bodies  of  various  animals.  He  constitutes  the  stars 
into  contingent  and  sensible  gods :  they  have  beauti- 
ful and  immortal  bodies  of  a  round  form,  and  are 
made  of  fire.  He  asserts  poetic  inspiration  and 
madness  to  be  the  result  of  demoniac  possession, 
and  says  with  Socrates  that  those  who  deny  de- 
moniac powers  are  themselves  demoniacs. 

"We  see  from  this  account  the  mythical  origin  of 
all  that  concerns  the  organization  and  genesis  of  the 
world,  the  destinies  and  nature  of  the  soul,  since  these 


226  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

are  sublimated  myths ;  the  elements  are  first  regarded 
as  deities,  and  the  world  is  made  in  the  image  of  man, 
and  considered  to  be  alive ;  the  stars  and  the  earth 
are  endowed  with  life  and  intelligence;  the  fate  of 
souls  before  and  after  death,  their  recollection  of  a 
prior  existence,  their  transmigrations  and  wanderings 
around  the  tombs,  demoniac  possession  in  inspiration 
and  madness,  are  all  very  ancient  mythical  represen- 
tations, which  form  a  great  part  of  the  theoretical  and 
spiritual  cosmogony  of  savages  in  all  times  and  places. 
We  have  seen  that  not  only  relatively  civilized  peoples, 
but  those  which  are  quite  savage  divide  souls  into 
distinct  parts  :  throughout  Africa,  America,  and  Asia, 
th^re  is  a  belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls  into 
animals,  plants,  and  other  objects.     The  Tasmanians 
believed  that  their  souls  would  ascend  to  the  stars 
and  abide  there ;  and  all  savages  hold  the  demoniac 
possession  of  inspired  persons,  of  madmen,  and  of  the 
sick,  which  has  led  to  what  may  be  called  a  diabolic 
pathology.     The  general  conception  of  the  world  as  a 
living  animal,  with  all  the  tendencies  ascribed  to  it 
by  Plato,  is  only  the  primeval  fact  of  the  animation 
and  personification    of    phenomena    applied  to  the 
general  idea  of  the  universe.     Hence  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  much  of  Plato's  physics  and  psychology  are  due 
to  the  necessary  and  historic  course  of  myth,  and  to 
the  schools  into  which  myth  had  been  modified  before 
his  time. 

We  must  dwell  more  particularly  on  his  theory  of 


HISTOEICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  227 

ideas,  since  in  this  the  advance  made  by  Plato  in  the 
evolution  of  myth  really  consists,  and  it  marks  a  very 
definite  stage  which  had  and  still  has  a  powerful 
influence  on  subsequent  and  modern  thought. 

We  have  already  shown  how,  by  the  logical  power 
of  thought,  this  phase  in  the  ideal  evolution  of  myth 
was  reached,  and  we  have  traced  it  in  an  inchoate 
form  in  various  rude  peoples,  as  well  as  in  its  ulti- 
mate modification  in  Plato.  In  his  writings  it  takes 
the  form  of  a  complete,  vast,  and  organic  theory. 
The  logical  conceptions  and  representative  ideas, 
idols  peculiar  to  the  mind,  which  were  at  first  in- 
volved in  fetishtic  and  anthropomorphic  images,  are 
now  divested  of  their  earlier  wrappings,  and  are 
classified  as  the  intellectual  ideas  which  they  really 
are,  and  which  they  have  become  by  the  innate  and 
reflex  exercise  of  human  thought.  But  on  account 
of  the  faculty  which  ever  governs  our  immediate 
perception  of  internal  and  external  things  they  could 
not  in  Plato's  time,  nor  indeed  in  that  of  many  sub- 
sequent philosophers,  remain  as  simple  intellectual 
signs  of  the  process  of  reason.  This  faculty  influenced 
these  conceptions,  these  psychical  forms,  whether 
particular,  specific,  or  general,  and  they  became  living 
subjects,  like  phenomena,  objects,  shades,  images  in 
dreams,  normal  and  abnormal  hallucinations.  Thus 
the  Ideas  in  Plato  became,  reflectively  and  theoreti- 
cally, entities  with  an  intrinsic  existence,  eternal,  divine, 
and  absolute  essences.  Bat  the  fetish,  the  anthropo- 


228  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

morphic  idol,  was  not  only  regarded  as  a  living  but 
as  a  causative  subject ;  the  same  power  was  likewise 
infused  into  the  Ideas,  and  they  were  held  to  be  causes 
of  particular  things,  of  which  they  were  the  earlier 
and  eternal  type.      Thus  the  myth  in  the  Platonic 
Ideas  became  scientific,  but  it  continued  to  be  a  myth ; 
the   substance   varied,  but  the  form  was  the  same. 
The  objective  phenomena  of  the  world  had  first  been 
personified,  or  their  fanciful  images  were  assumed  to 
be  objective ;  now  the  world  of  reason  was  personified, 
and  mythology  became  intellectual  instead  of  cosmic. 
Those  who  opposed  Plato's  theory  of  ideas  said 
that  he  realized  abstractions,  or  personified  ideas; 
but  no  one,  as  I  think,  perceived  the  natural  process 
which  led  him  to  do  so,  nor  explained  the  faculty  by 
which  he  was  necessarily  influenced.     Plato's  theory 
was  only  an  ultimate  phase  of  the  evolution  of  the 
vague  and  primitive  animation  of  the  world,  which 
had  passed  through  fetishism,  polytheism,  and  the 
worship  of  the  elements  of  nature,  and  had  reached 
the  entification  and  subjectivity  of  ideas,  which  was 
also  attained  by  natural  science,  after  passing  through 
its  mythical  envelopment.    We  have  noted  the  causes, 
which  in  the  case  of  the  earlier  philosophers  happened 
to  be  objective,  while  they  were  in  Plato's  case  sub- 
jective, owing  to  the  character  and  temperament  of 
his   mind ;  both   conduced  to  the   development  and 
aesthetic  splendour  of  this  teaching  among  the  Greeks. 
The  teaching  of  Plato,  which  had  more  or  less  influ- 


H1STOKICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  229 

ence  on  all  the  earlier  civilized  peoples,  of  his  own 
and  subsequent  times,  and  which  was  also  involved 
in  the  mythical  representations  of  later  savages, 
assumed  an  aspect  which  varied  with  the  special 
history,  the  ethnic  temperament,  the  geographical 
and  extrinsic  conditions  of  different  peoples;  but 
considered  in  itself,  it  is  always  the  same,  and  is  the 
necessary  result  of  the  evolution  of  myth  and  of 
thought.  Since  the  evolution  of  myth  leads  to  the 
gradual  genesis  of  science,  which  becomes  more 
rational  as  myth  is  transformed  from  the  material 
to  the  ideal,  ideas  are  substituted  for  myths,  and 
laws,  as  Vico  well  observes,  for  the  canons  of  poetry. 
This  noble  and  more  rational  theory  of  eternal 
and  causative  Ideas  resembles  anthropomorphic  poly- 
theism in  concentrating  into  one  supreme  Idea  the 
intellectual  Zeus,  the  Being  of  beings,  according  to 
another  mythical  and  scientific  representation  by 
Aristotle,  and  it  was  afterwards  combined  with  the 
Semitic  idea  of  the  Absolute.  This  was  fused  with 
the  Logos,  the  Platonic  demiurgos  of  Messianic  ideas, 
and  afterwards  produced  the  universal  philosophy  and 
religion  of  Catholicism,  which  dominated  and  still 
dominates  over  thought  with  vigorous  tenacity,  and 
extends  into  all  the  civilized  world  inhabited  by 
European  races.  We  do  not  only  trace  the  same 
thought,  modified,  classified,  and  perfected  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  in  the  Councils,  the  Fathers,  and  the 
schoolmen,  but  also  in  independent  philosophies.  In 


230  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

our  own  time  it  has  assumed  new  forms,  derived 
from  the  rapid  progress  made  in  cosmic  and  ex- 
perimental sciences,  even  in  those  which  are  ap- 
parently the  most  rationalizing.  It  is  manifest  in 
Hegel,  Fichte,  and  Schelling,  nor  is  it  difficult  to  trace 
it  in  the  latest  and  artificial  theories  of  the  schools 
of  Schopenhauer  and  Hartmann.  In  all  these  cases 
the  entification  of  logical  conceptions  is  evident ;  in 
all  there  is  an  arbitrary  personification  of  a  conception 
or  of  a  fundamental  Idea. 

In  order  fully  to  understand  the  evolution  of 
thought  in  myth  and  science,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider the  other  schools  which  arose  in  Greece,  prior 
to,  and  contemporaneously  with,  Plato,  as  we  shall 
thus  obtain  a  more  comprehensive  idea  of  the  course 
of  such  a  development.  In  addition  to  the  natural 
and  partly  ideal  schools,  the  Ionic,  the  Eleatic,  the 
Pythagorean  and  the  Platonic,  there  arose  those  of 
Leucippus,  Deinocritus,  and  Epicurus,  which  might 
be  called  mechanical,  and  that  of  Aristotle,  which 
takes  a  middle  course  between  the  idea  and  the  fact, 
between  the  dynamic  and  the  mechanical  explanation 
of  the  universe. 

In  an  intellectual  people  like  the  Greeks  there 
arose,  in  addition  to  the  speculative  theories  already 
mentioned,  other  opinions  which  were  derived  from 
minds  singularly  free  from  mythical  ideas ;  the 
world  was  considered  as  a  concourse  of  indepen- 
dent atoms ;  its  genesis  thus  became  more  conform- 


HISTOEICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  231 

able  with  abstract  mathematical  calculation,-  effected 
by  this  combination  of  simple  bodies  and  the  evo- 
lution of  elements.  This  was  what  Leucippus, 
Democritus,  and  Epicurus  undertook  to  teach,  pass- 
ing beyond  the  natural  and  ideal  myths,  in  order 
to  take  their  stand  on  the  movement  of  isolated  parts 
as  the  maker  of  the  universe.  Hence  followed  the 
theory  of  atoms,  and  the  mechanical  construction  of 
the  world,  of  bodies  and  souls,  their  continual  com- 
position and  decomposition.  Since,  however,  these 
were  mere  speculations,  not  supported  by  experi- 
mental methods  and  adequate  instruments,  mythical 
forms  were  confounded  with  the  mechanical  ex- 
planation of  the  world,  such  as  the  altogether 
anthropomorphic  conception  of  gods  who  were  dis- 
solved and  formed  again ;  the  sensible  effluvium  from 
images,  an  effluvium  which  revealed  the  ancient 
belief  in  the  normal  and  abnormal  personification  of 
imaginary  forms,  and  of  ideas.  Yet  the  character  of 
this  teaching  was  progressive  and  rational  in  com- 
parison with  the  mythical  and  ideal  theory  of 
Plato,  and  with  the  schools  and  religions  which 
emanated  from  him,  even  up  to  our  time,  and 
thought  was  strongly  stimulated  in  its  opposition  to 
the  continuance  of  myth. 

The  influence  of  this  school  was  confirmed  by  the 
Aristotelian  teaching;  if  on  the  one  side  Aristotle 
inclined  towards  the  mythical  entities  of  Plato,  and 

the  old  zoomorphic  conception  of  the  world,  on  the 
11 


232  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

other  his  theory  of  perception  and  of  ideas,  his 
amazing  observations  in  physiology  and  anatomy, 
and  his  natural  classification  of  the  animal  kingdom, 
induced  a  positive  tendency  of  thought,  an  a  posteriori 
method  of  observation,  which  awakened  the  intelligence 
and  predisposed  it  to  a  more  rational  and  scientific 
evolution.  His  geocentric  ideas  of  cosmogony,  his 
logical  forms,  the  human  architecture  of  the  world, 
his  conception  of  the  Being  who  was  the  end  and 
cause  of  motion  in  all  things,  were  indeed  obstinately 
maintained  by  the  philosophy  of  Catholics  and 
schoolmen,  and  served  as  an  obstacle  to  the  real 
progress  of  science ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  his 
general  method  of  observing  nature,  the  discoveries 
which  he  made,  and  the  tendency  of  his  researches,  as 
well  as  the  importance  he  assigned  to  consciousness 
in  the  formation  of  ideas,  did  much  to  foster  in- 
dependent inquiry  in  the  history  of  human  thought ; 
and  coupled  with  the  earlier  mechanical  schools,  he 
prepared  the  way  for  the  evolution  of  modern  science. 
This  is  not  the  place  for  tracing  the  simultaneous 
course  of  the  evolution  of  the  ideal  and  mechanical 
schools  during  the  ages  which  separate  us  from  their 
origin ;  and  while  the  influence  of  the  one  gradually 
waned,  the  other  gained  strength,  although  in  a 
sporadic  way,  first  among  privileged  minds,  and  then 
more  generally. 

It  necessarily  happened  that  as  the  evolution  of 
thought  went  on,  impelled  by  its   early  tendencies, 


HISTOEICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  233 

both  mechanical  and  positive,  the  ideal  system  was 
also  modified,  and  gave  place  to  sounder  and  truer 
theories.  This  great  fact,  the  ultimate  evolution  of 
our  own  time,  was  effected  on  the  one  side  by 
psychological  analysis,  and  on  the  other  by  the  direct 
and  experimental  observation  of  nature.  Setting 
aside  the  gradual  preparation  which  led  up  to  this 
point,  we  can  consider  Descartes  and  Galileo  as  the 
representatives  of  these  two  great  factors ;  since  the 
one  by  the  analysis  of  thought,  the  other  by  natural 
experiments,  overthrew  the  mythical  ideas,  although 
without  being  aware  that  the  achievement  would 
produce  such  grand  results. 

The  Platonic  Ideas  were  objective  to  the  mind, 
and  independent  of  it,  since  they  were  regarded  as  a 
divine,  concrete,  absolute  world  in  themselves.  The 
earlier  evolution  of  myth  and  science  relied  upon  this 
and  were  resolved  into  it.  But  we  know  that  the 
process  of  thought  is  continuous  in  historic  races, 
and  that  myth  is  gradually  divested  of  its  personality 
and  assumes  a  more  intellectual  form  in  the  mind. 
Thus  the  material  Idea  passed  into  an  intellectual 
conception  ;  that  which  first  appeared  in  an  objective 
and  extrinsic  form  became  subjective  and  intrinsic,  a 
transition  which  was  effected  by  the  nominalists. 
This  gave  rise  to  a  cognition  which  was  altogether 
psychological ;  at  first  reality  was  wholly  objective, 
and  the  ideas  were  only  a  sublime  intellectual  myth, 
but  now  the  objective  world  disappeared,  and  the 


234  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

intellect  which  formulated  the  conception  was  the 
only  real  thing.  In  virtue  of  the  faculty  of  entifica- 
tion,  only  the  mind  and  its  ideas  were  real,  the  world 
and  all  which  it  contained  had  a  douhtful  existence. 
This  tendency  had  its  ultimate  expression  in  Fichte, 
who  created  the  universe  by  means  of  the  Ego,  thus 
transforming  the  earlier  objective  myth  into  one 
which  was  wonderfully  subjective.  Descartes  doubted 
about  everything  beyond  the  range  of  his  own  thought, 
and  was  the  first  to  overthrow  the  former  ideal 
realism,  and  to  lead  the  way  to  science,  and  to  more 
rational  analysis.  To  him  the  teaching  of  Spinoza 
and  Kant  was  really  due,  as  well  as  the  English 
schools  which  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  destruction 
of  the  earlier  mythical  edifice  of  ideas. 

But,  as  I  have  already  observed,  if  this  great 
rational  progress  were  important  on  the  one  side,  on 
the  other  it  produced  a  more  spiritualized  form  of 
myth,  namely  the  subjective,  which  became  still  more 
powerful  in  the  philosophy  of  Kant.  While  some 
thinkers  sought  to  resolve  and  dissolve  the  objective 
myth,  they  did  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  add  strength  to 
the  subjective  form  of  myth  and  science,  for  which 
Descartes  had  prepared  the  way;  the  theory  of 
Spinoza  and  of  the  German  school  in  general 
fundamentally  consists  in  the  substitution  of  entified 
forms  and  dialectics  of  the  mind  for  the  earlier 
objective  forms  of  ideas.  A  great  error  was  rectified, 
and  the  former  phase  of  the  intellectual  evolution 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  235 

of  myth  disappeared,  in  favour  of  another  which, 
although  still  erroneous,  was  more  rational  and 
independent. 

The  subjective  and  still  mythical  representations, 
either  of  the  mind  or  of  external  objects,  were  after- 
wards reduced  to  true  science  by  positive  and  experi- 
mental methods,  aided  by  instruments,  and  confirmed 
by  the  discoveries  of  Galileo  and  of  his  disciples 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  He  was  in  modern 
times  another  great  factor  of  the  dissolution  of  myth, 
so  far  as  it  is  definitive.  Nature  was  made  subordinate 
to  weight  and  measure,  and  to  their  mathematical  and 
mechanical  proportions  in  various  phenomena ;  these 
were  deduced  from  experiment  and  the  use  of  instru- 
ments, the  factors  which  in  the  hands  of  Galileo  and 
his  great  successors  in  all  civilized  nations,  destroyed 
and  are  still  destroying  the  old  mythical  conception  of 
the  world.  In  astronomy  they  overthrew  the  catholic 
tenet  of  the  geocentric  constitution  of  the  heavens ; 
they  shattered  the  spheres  in  which  they  were  confined, 
opened  infinite  space,  and  peopled  it  with  an  infinite 
number  of  stars,  and  in  the  attraction  of  gravity  they 
discovered  the  universal  law  of  motion  in  the  firma- 
ment. Thus  all  the  mythical  representations  of  the 
system  of  the  world,  whether  Aristotelian,  Ptolemaic, 
or  Biblical,  vanished  for  ever,  and  the  great  zoomor- 
phic  body  of  the  universe  was  dissolved;  to  be 
replaced  by  worlds  circulating  in  infinite  space,  sub- 
ject to  the  laws  of  number  and  of  geometry. 


236  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

Measure,  weight,  and  proportion  were  applied  to 
all  celestial  and  terrestrial  phenomena,  and  physics, 
chemistry,  and  all  the  organic  sciences  became  the 
manifestation  of  facts,  of  observed  and  calculated  laws, 
arranged  in  a  natural  order,  and  in  this  way  an 
immense  advance  was  made  in  all  branches  of  science. 
The  history  of  mankind,  first  regarded  as  the  arbitrary 
arrangement  of  a  superior  being,  as  it  was  formulated 
in  the  teaching  of  Judaism  and  Christianity,  had  its 
own  laws  in  the  facts  of  which  it  consisted,  and  thus 
the  mythical  conception  which  endowed  it  with 
personal  life  was  dissolved.  The  origin  of  things  was 
explained  by  this  method  of  observation,  and  by  these 
positive  conceptions ;  the  records  which  had  hitherto 
been  regarded  as  a  divine,  extrinsic  revelation  came  to 
be  considered  as  simple  documents,  in  which  truth 
was  to  be  separated  from  the  myth  which  obscured 
and  encompassed  it.  So  by  degrees,  from  fact  to  fact, 
from  analysis  to  analysis,  by  observation,  experiment, 
and  decomposition,  the  rational,  mechanical  explana- 
tion arose  and  gathered  strength.  The  generation  of 
things,  the  variety  of  phenomena  and  their  order, 
were  derived  from  the  primitive  chemical  atom,  and 
from  the  various  changes  of  form  and  rapidity  of 
motion  to  which  they  are  subjected.  The  old  con- 
ception of  atoms,  which  had  never  been  forgotten,  and 
which  had  unconsciously  swayed  ajid  influenced  the 
minds  of  men,  reappears ;  but  it  reappears  transformed 
by  observation,  by  weight  and  measure  and  experi- 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  237 

ment,  and  it  has  become  a  science  instead  of  a 
simple  speculation.  The  atomistic  evolution  of  the 
ancients,  accepted  by  one  school  of  speculative 
thought,  which  sought  to  overthrow  the  mythical 
representation  of  the  world,  was  only  an  isolated 
anticipation  of  a  few  philosophers;  it  has  now 
become  a  scientific  evolution,  common  to  all  modern 
civilization.  The  theory  of  descent,  transformation, 
and  the  general  evolution  of  species,  followed  as  a 
necessary  corollary  and  immediate  result  of  the 
dissolution  of  Plato's  mythical  conception  of  specific 
ideas,  and  of  all  the  generic  but  material  personifica- 
tions with  which  nature  had  been  peopled.  When 
such  conceptions  of  the  ideal  world  were  dissipated, 
those  of  the  actual  world  of  nature  soon  followed,  and 
this  de-personification  of  natural,  mythical  species  in 
the  vast  organic  kingdom  is  one  of  the  most  splendid 
intellectual  achievements  of  the  age. 

This  victory  of  the  natural  sciences  has  reacted  on 
those  which  are  psychological,  and  on  the  theory  of 
the  mind,  and  has  subjected  them  to  the  necessities  and 
form  of  this  new  phase  of  the  evolution  of  thought. 
The  subjective  had  been  substituted  for  the  objective 
myth  and  had  created  the  forms  of  mind,  its  logical 
laws  and  intrinsic  process,  the  objective  synthesis  of 
the  world,  and  it  was  now  influenced  by  the  stupendous 
discoveries  and  analyses  of  other  sciences,  so  that 
psychology  was  in  its  turn  transformed  into  a  science, 
not  only  of  observation,  but  of  experiment.  Measure, 


238  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

weight,  numerical  proportion,  in  short  the  experi- 
mental method,  took  possession  of  the  facts,  acts,  and 
processes  of  the  mind,  as  of  every  other  object  and 
subject  of  nature.  In  addition  to  the  great  names  of 
modern  psychologists  in  England,  we  may  mention 
among  other  experimental  psychologists  in  Germany, 
Fechner,  Wundt,  Lotze,  Helmholtz,  Weber,  Kammler, 
etc. ;  illustrious  men  in  France  and  elsewhere  might 
also  be  cited  to  show  what  progress  has  been  made 
and  is  about  to  be  made  in  this  field.  The  destruction 
of  myth  and  of  the  subjective  myths  of  psychology  is 
always  going  on,  and  a  positive  science  of  mental 
phenomena  has  arisen,  like  that  of  natural  pheno- 
mena. The  ultimate  phase  of  myth  is  so  near  its 
end  that  it  has  been  possible  to  create  a  psychology 
implying  the  absence  of  a  soul.  The  scientific  faculty 
has  now  indeed  a  complete  ascendency  over  the 
mythical  representation  with  which  it  was  originally 
coeval. 

Yet  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  myth  is  extinct. 
In  the  case  of  the  great  majority  of  the  human  race, 
a  small  and  elect  portion  excepted,  myth  and  all 
the  superstitions  which  proceed  from  it  persist  in  an 
ideal,  cosmic,  spiritual,  or  religious  form,  and  these  are 
only  slowly  disappearing  among  the  common  people, 
and  even  among  the  educated  classes.  Owing  to  the 
primordial  and  innate  necessity  which  it  is  so  difficult 
to  overcome,  science  itself  still  nourishes  myths  within 
its  pale,  although  unconsciously  and  in  their  most 


HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  239 

rational  form.  Within  our  own  recollection  the  im- 
ponderable was  a  tenet  of  physics,  and  this  was  indeed, 
in  spite  of  all  the  enlightenment  of  science,  a  mythical 
entification  of  forces.  The  same  mythical  entifica- 
tions  were  found  in  physiology,  in  chemistry,  in 
nearly  all  the  sciences.  Undoubtedly  these  scientific 
myths  had  no  anthropomorphic  value,  yet  they  are 
notwithstanding  truly  mythical  entifications,  inas- 
much as  they  virtually  personify  laws,  or  mere  modes 
of  motion. 

Ether,  according  to  our  present  conception  of  it, 
differing  in  its  laws  and  influences  from  the  atoms 
which  constitute  the  world,  and  working  among  and 
above  them,  is  perhaps  only  a  grand  myth  like 
that  of  the  imponderable,  which  has  been  exploded ; 
that  is,  it  is  held  to  be  a  material  entity,  while  it 
may  be  only  another  modification  of  the  ele- 
mentary matter  in  a  state  differing  from  the  three 
already  known  to  us ;  some  of  Crooke's  late  experi- 
ments on  one  condition  of  extremely  gaseous  matter 
leads  to  this  assumption.  The  divided  forces  of 
matter,  and  the  dualism  which  still  survives,  are  also 
mythical  conceptions.  Although  so  much  progress 
has  been  made  in  a  rational  direction,  and  truth 
is  widely  diffused,  yet  the  old  mythical  instinct 
constantly  reappears  in  some  form  or  other.  I  must 
be  permitted  to  say  that  this  is  an  evident  proof  of 
the  truth  of  my  theory.  Unless  myth  were  due  to 
an  intrinsic  psychical  and  organic  law,  it  would 


240  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

not  so  persistently  reappear.  As  soon  as  men  are 
rationally  conscious  of  this  entifying  faculty  and  its 
immediate  effects  on  knowledge,  the  illusion  -will 
cease.  Myth  will  be  destroyed  in  every  kind  of  facts 
and  phenomena,  and  science,  no  longer  the  uncon- 
scious victim  of  this  illusion,  will  advance  with 
caution  and  assurance. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OF   DREAMS,    ILLUSIONS,    NORMAL    AND    ABNORMAL   HALLU- 
CINATIONS,   DELIRIUM,    AND    MADNESS — CONCLUSION. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters,  I  have  shown,  as  I 
believe,  the  genesis  of  myth,  the  fundamental  faculty 
in  which  it  necessarily  originates,  and  its  evolution 
in  man,  particularly  in  the  Aryan  and  Semitic 
races.  We  have  seen  that  the  primitive  and  universal 
fact  consists  in  the  immediate  and  spontaneous  enti- 
fication  of  natural  phenomena  and  of  the  ideas  them- 
selves ;  and  we  have  resolved  this  fact  into  its 
elements,  from  which  all  the  generating  sources  of 
myth  issue,  that  is,  from  the  immediate  effects  of  the 
perception.  Putting  man  out  of  the  question,  we 
ascertained  that  the  same  innate  necessity  was 
common  to  the  animal  kingdom. 

In  order  to  complete  the  theory,  we  must  con- 
sider some  other  facts  and  psychical  phenomena,  both 
normal  and  abnormal,  so  as  to  ascertain  whether 
these  are  not  due  to  the  same  cause,  as  far  as  respects 
their  intrinsic  forms ;  namely,  the  belief  in  the  reality 


212  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  images  seen  in  dreams,  as  well  as  in  those  which 
appear  in  illusions,  in  normal  hallucinations  of  the 
senses,  and  in  those  which  are  abnormal,  in  ecstasy, 
in  delirium,  in  madness,  in  idiocy,  and  dementia. 
In  all  these  mental  conditions,  we  ascribe  a  body 
and  material  existence  to  images  which  for  various 
causes  appear  to  be  really  presented  to  our  senses. 

If  we  are  able  to  show  that  all  such  appearances 
are  believed  to  have  a  real  existence  in  virtue  of  the 
same  law  and  faculty  of  perception  which  generated 
myth  in  its  earliest  manifestation,  we  shall  have 
succeeded  in  establishing  a  common  genesis  for  all 
these  various  psychical  phenomena,  thus  affording  no 
contemptible  contribution  to  psychology  in  general, 
and  to  the  science  of  human  thought. 

To  dream  is  not  merely  a  normal  act  of  man,  but, 
as  it  appears  from  many  witnesses,  it  is  common  to 
all  animals.  In  dreams  the  ordinary  laws  of  time 
and  space  are  strangely  modified,  and  images  of  all 
kinds  appear,  sometimes  confusedly,  sometimes  in  a 
rational  order,  often  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
association,  while  the  voluntary  exercise  of  thought 
may  be  said  to  be  dormant.  This  is,  speaking 
generally,  the  condition  and  nature  of  dreams,  which 
we  must  presently  consider  adequately  with  more 
subtle  and  exact  analysis. 

Before  we  trace  the  cause  of  the  apparent  reality 
of  these  images,  and  the  laws  which  govern  it,  let  us 
consider  man  in  his  waking  condition,  so  as  to 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  243 

ascertain  at  once  the  likeness  and  the  difference 
between  these  two  states.  We  must  first  inquire 
whether  the  waking  is  absolutely  distinct  from  the 
dreaming  state  as  far  as  the  appearance  of  the  images, 
their  nature,  and  mode  of  action  are  concerned.  It 
has  been  observed  by  many  psychologists  and  physio- 
logists that  in  the  waking  state,  when  images  do  not 
arise  from  the  immediate  presence  of  objects,  or  are 
not  directed  by  the  will  to  a  definite  aim,  they  appear, 
group  themselves,  and  disperse  by  the  immediate 
association  of  ideas,  and  the  measurements  of  time 
and  space  are  modified  just  as  they  are  in  dreams. 
These  observations  are  correct,  and  the  phenomena 
%may  be  verified  by  every  one  for  himself. 

In  this  waking  state,  which  really  resembles  that 
of  dreams,  only  the  analogy  of  form  has  been  per- 
ceived; the  ideas  of  the  objects  present  to  the  mind 
have  resembled  those  of  images  seen  in  dreams,  but 
they  have  continued  to  be  mere  ideas,  presented  to 
the  imagination,  whereas  in  dreams  the  things  seen 
have  been  supposed  to  have  a  real  existence.  In  this 
respect  the  analysis  is  partly  true  and  partly  false ; 
it  is  not,  as  we  shall  see,  perfect  and  exact. 

It  sometimes  happens,  owing  to  special  circum- 
stances and  conditions  of  mind,  or  to  peculiar 
temperaments,  that  the  ideas  of  things  do  not 
remain  as  mere  thoughts  in  the  thinker's  mind, 
but  that  they  become  so  intense  that  they  are  for 
the  moment  held  to  be  real,  precisely  as  in  a  dream. 


244  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

I  do  not  here  speak  of  abnormal  or  pathological 
conditions,  or  of  extraordinary  phenomena,  but  of  a 
normal  and  common  condition.  If  there  is  any 
novelty  in  the  assertion,  it  is  owing  to  a  want  of 
observation  and  reflection,  and  to  not  attempting  to 
trace  the  real  nature  of  the  phenomena  in  which  we 
take  part,  and  which  occur  every  day.  The  habitual 
inaccuracy  of  observation  has  led  to  the  use  of  many 
proverbs  and  aphorisms  in  the  interpretation  of  things 
which  have  been  transmitted  from  one  generation  to 
another,  and  are  now  accepted  as  indubitable  axioms. 
These  are  to  be  found  in  every  branch  of  knowledge, 
and  we  have  an  instance  in  the  popular  and  scientific 
aphorism  that  in  dreams  images  appear  to  be  real, 
and  that  in  the  waking  state  they  always  continue  to 
be  mere  thoughts  and  ideas. 

This  is  not  the  fact,  since,  putting  illusions  and 
hallucinations  out  of  the  question,  thoughts  and  ideas 
sometimes  assume  the  character  and  nature  of  real 
objects,  just  as  they  do  in  dreams.  This  fact  con- 
stitutes the  link  and  gradual  assimilation  of  the  two 
states,  since  in  no  series  of  phenomena  natiira  facit 
saltum. 

When,  for  instance,  as  often  happens,  we  abandon 
ourselves  to  a  train  of  thought,  and  our  perception 
of  surrounding  objects  is  weakened  by  inattention, 
we  become  as  it  were  unconscious,  and  are  only  intent 
on  the  thoughts  and  ideas  which  move  us.  Since  no 
definite  object  constrains  the  will  to  rule  and  guide 


DEEAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  245 

these  thoughts  and  ideas,  that  condition  of  mind  is 
established  which  we  have  shown  to  be  identical  in 
form  with  the  act  of  dreaming,  for  in  this  case  also 
thoughts  and  ideas  have  their  origin  in  association 
alone.  In  this  condition  a  phenomenon  peculiar  to 
dreams  may  also  occur  which  may  be  termed  the 
suggestive  impulse ;  a  sound  or  some  sudden  sensa- 
tion produces  an  immediate  transformation  of  the 
image  itself,  and  a  new  dream  arises  in  conformity 
with  the  nature  of  the  new  impression.  Every  one 
must,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  have  experienced 
such  a  phenomenon,  and  this  special  characteristic 
of  dreams  may  also  take  place  in  the  waking  con- 
dition which  I  have  described.  I  myself  can  bear 
witness  to  this  fact,  and  will  mention  one  among 
several  instances :  I  was  once  reading  inattentively, 
seated  at  my  ease  in  a  lounging  chair,  and  my 
thoughts  took  quite  another  direction,  wandering 
vaguely  from  one  thing  to  another.  All  at  once 
some  people  entered  an  adjoining  room  talking  to- 
gether ;  I  heard  what  they  said  indistinctly,  but  the 
word  Florence  reached  my  ears,  and  I  soon  imagined 
myself  to  be  in  that  city,  and  going  on  from  one 
association  to  another  I  continued  for  some  time  to 
see  again  the  places,  monuments,  and  people  I  had 
known  there.  Yet  I  was  fully  awake,  and  from  time 
to  time  I  brushed  the  flies  from  my  face  and  glanced 
at  the  clock  on  the  chimney-piece,  since  I  had  to  go 
out  at  three  o'clock. 


246  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

It  appears  from  this  fact,  which  will  be  confirmed 
by  many  of  my  readers,  that  some  waking  states 
resemble  those  of  dreams  in  form,  and  moreover  they 
are  sometimes  even  alike  in  substance.  Ideas  and 
thoughts  in  the  conditions  just  indicated  may  not 
only  be  latent,  active,  combined,  or  transformed  by 
suggestive  impulses,  but  ideas  are  represented  by 
images  in  such  vivid  relief  that,  until  the  observer 
recollects  himself,  they  are  seen  and  felt  by  him 
with  the  same  sense  of  reality  as  in  a  dream.  This 
mental  transformation  is  however  so  habitual,  that 
the  implicit  conviction  of  being  really  awake,  does 
not  allow  us  to  observe  what  the  actual  nature 
of  the  phenomenon  is,  since  there  is  an  immediate 
transition  from  an  implicit  perception  of  the  image  as 
real  to  the  habitual  form  of  simple  thought,  with- 
out distinguishing  the  difference  between  these  two 
states  of  consciousness.  Any  one  who  has  long 
practised  himself  in  the  observation  of  such  dis- 
tinctions will,  however,  be  able  to  understand  the 
psychical  process  and  to  estimate  its  value. 

It  has  often  occurred  to  myself,  in  circumstances 
analogous  to  the  above,  when  thinking  of  persons  or 
places  at  a  distance,  to  see  them  imaged  before  me 
in  such  vivid  relief  that  I  have  been  startled  as  if  by 
a  morbid  hallucination.  Once,  in  passing  through 
my  chamber,  my  attention  was  so  strongly  fixed  on 
an  absent  person  that  I  was  not  only  vividly  conscious 
of  his  form,  but  also  of  his  voice  and  gestures,  so  that 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  247 

I  was  amazed  by  the  lively  image  brought  before 
me.  I  could  adduce  other  instances  from  my  own 
experience  and  that  of  others  to  show  that  in  a 
waking  and  altogether  normal  state  we  may  believe 
in  the  reality  of  the  image  as  we  do  in  dreams. 

This  vivid  and  momentary  realization  of  images 
is  very  common  in  the  lower  classes,  who  often  talk 
to  themselves,  and  use  gestures  which  show  that  they 
are  conversing  at  the  moment  with  imaginary  persons, 
who  stand  before  them  as  if  they  were  really  there,  in 
the  same  manner  as  in  dreams.  Indeed,  every  one  has 
experienced  this  phenomenon  for  himself,  especially 
when  strongly  excited  by  anger,  sorrow,  or  hope.  If 
it  were  possible  to  reflect  on  the  process  of  thought  at 
the  time  we  should  distinctly  understand  that  we  were 
dreaming  while  still  awake. 

The  vivid  imagination  of  artists  is  well  known,  so 
that  they  are  able  to  see  and  represent  things  and 
persons,  either  in  words,  with  the  pencil,  or  the  chisel, 
just  as  if  they  were  actually  present.  The  image  so 
vividly  realized  is  a  necessary  condition  of  the  exercise 
of  their  respective  arts.  When  great  poets,  such  as 
Dante,  Ariosto,  Milton,  and  Goethe,  conceived  and 
idealized  their  thoughts  with  every  detail  of  circum- 
stances, persons,  actions,  expressions,  and  move- 
ments, no  one  can  deny  that  the  images  were  vividly 
present  to  their  minds,  and  that  while  in  the  act 
of  composition  these  were  unconsciously  regarded 
as  having  a  real  existence.  If  these  poetic  descrip- 


218  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

tions  are  presented  to  the  attentive  reader  in  such 
a  vivid  form  as  to  transport  him  into  a  real  world, 
much  more  must  the  authors  of  these  marvellous 
creations  have  looked  upon  them  as  real  at  the 
moment  cf  composition.  The  impression  of  truth- 
fulness is  indeed  produced  hy  the  fact  that  the 
writers  saw  these  things  as  though  they  were  real. 
I  speak  of  states  of  consciousness,  not  of  reflex 
observation,  of  intense  moments  of  sensation  and 
imagination,  which  are  unnoticed  by  the  man  who 
experiences  them  in  his  waking  moments.  Such 
is  the  reader  of  a  poem,  a  romance,  or  history, 
the  spectator  of  a  picture,  who  is  able  for  the  time 
to  abstract  himself  from  surrounding  objects,  and 
who  implicitly  believes  that  he  sees  those  places 
and  persons,  or  whatever  the  book  or  painter  has 
described  or  represented.  If  suddenly  interrupted, 
he  rouses  himself,  and  may  be  said  to  awake  to  the 
present  reality  of  things,  as  if  startled  from  a  dream. 

Wigan  relates  that  a  celebrated  portrait  painter 
worked  with  such  quickness  and  facility  that  he 
painted  more  than  three  hundred  portraits  in  a  year. 
When  he  was  asked  the  secret  of  his  rapid  execution 
and  of  the  faithfulness  of  the  likeness,  he  replied, 
"  When  any  one  proposes  to  have  his  portrait  taken, 
I  look  at  him  attentively  for  half  an  hour,  while  sketch- 
ing his  features  on  the  canvas  ;  I  then  lay  the  canvas 
aside  and  pursue  the  same  method  with  another 
portrait,  and  so  on.  When  I  wish  to  return  to  the 


DKEAMS    AND  ILLUSIONS.  249 

first,  I  take  his  person  into  my  mind  and  place  it 
before  me  as  distinctly  as  if  he  were  actually  present. 
I  set  to  work,  looking  at  the  sitter  from  time  to  time, 
since  I  am  able  to  see  him  whenever  I  look  that  way." 
Talma  asserted  that  when  he  was  on  the  stage,  he  was 
able  by  mere  force  of  will  to  transform  his  audience 
into  skeletons,  which  affected  him  with  such  emotion 
as  to  add  force  and  energy  to  his  action.  Abercromby 
speaks  of  a  man  who  had  the  faculty  of  calling  up 
visions  with  all  the  vividness  of  reality  whenever  he 
pleased,  by  strongly  fixing  his  attention  on  mental 
conceptions  which  corresponded  to  them.  Yet  he  was 
a  sane  man,  in  the  prime  of  life,  perfectly  intelligent, 
and  versed  in  practical  affairs. 

A  very  slight  withdrawal  of  the  attention  from 
surrounding  objects  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  enable 
artists  and  some  other  persons  to  call  up  these 
images  with  vivid  distinctness,  since  even  in  the 
waking  state  the  image  may  for  the  moment  appear 
to  be  actually  before  them.  Any  one  might  attain  to 
the  same  power  of  vivification  if  the  transition  from 
the  real  to  the  merely  ideal  image  were  not  in  the 
waking  state  so  instantaneous  and  easy;  whereas 
in  a  dream  the  state  of  illusion  is  uninterrupted,  and 
it  is  physiologically  impossible  for  the  mind  to  pass 
immediately  from  the  image,  which  is  believed  to  be 
real,  to  the  simply  representative  idea  of  the  thing. 

Even  in  the  waking  state,  the  image  and  repre- 
sentative idea  of  the  thing  naturally  tend  to  become, 


250  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

or  to  appear  to  be,  actual  realities,  even  in  a  strictly 
normal  condition  of  mind  and  body.  Nor  do  they 
only  implicitly  tend  to  become  such  by  the  innate 
impulse  of  the  mind,  but  they  actually  become  so  in 
fugitive  moments  of  which  man  is  scarcely  conscious, 
and  they  appear  to  him  exactly  as  they  do  in  dreams. 
Hence  it  follows  that  there  is  no  hard  and  fast  line 
between  the  sleeping  and  waking  states,  so  far  as  the 
nature  of  images,  their  source,  action,  and  combina- 
tions are  concerned,  when  men  are  distracted  in 
mind,  and  the  course  of  their  thoughts  is  not  volun- 
tarily directed  to  some  definite  object ;  so  that  by  a 
psychological  process  the  phenomena  of  the  waking 
state  may  be  partly  transformed  into  those  of  dreams. 
The  vivid  character  of  the  image,  presented  to  the 
senses  as  if  actually  there,  is  common  to  both  pheno- 
mena. The  way  in  which  we  begin  to  dream  shows  how, 
owing  to  our  physiological  conditions,  we  pass  through 
regular  stages  from  the  waking  state  into  that  of  sleep. 

"  Nuovo  pensiero  dentro  a  me  si  raise, 
Dal  qual  piu  altri  nacquei  o  e  diversi ; 
E  tan  to  di  uno  in  altro  vaneggiai 
Che  gli  ocelli  per  vaghezza  ricopersi, 
E  il  pensamento  in  sogno  trasmutai."  * 

So  Dante  writes  in  the  "  Purgatorio  "  with  deep  and 
subtle  truth.  Each  man  can  verify  for  himself  the 
exactness  of  the  great  poet's  description. 

*  A  new  thought  entered  my  mind,  whence  others,  differing  from 
the  first,  arose ;  and  as  I  roamed  from  one  to  another  I  was  tempted  to 
close  my  eyes,  and  thought  was  changed  into  a  dream. 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  251 

I  myself  can  readily  study  the  phenomena  of 
dreams,  since  I  never  sleep  without  dreaming  so 
vividly  that  I  remember  all  the  circumstances  in  the 
morning.  I  have  used  all  sorts  of  artifices  in  order  to 
trace  the  beginning  of  sleep  and  dreams,  and  always 
with  the  same  result,  so  that  I  am  certain  of  the 
accuracy  of  experiments  which  have  been  repeated  a 
hundred  times.  I  have  examined  other  persons  who 
have  made  the  same  observations,  all  of  whom  agree 
with  me. 

When  repose,  the  herald  of  sleep  and  dreams, 
begins,  my  thoughts  wander  in  an  irregular  and  some- 
what confused  manner.  As  they  are  gradually  sub- 
jected to  the  associations  to  which  they  successively 
give  rise,  they  are  transformed  into  more  vivid  images, 
a  vividness  which  is  always  in  inverse  proportion  to 
the  attention.  This  gradually  produces  the  state 
which  has  been  described  by  Maury  and  others  as 
hypnagogic  hallucination ;  that  is,  the  images  seem 
to  be  real,  although  the  subject  is  still  partly  awake, 
and  the  voluntary  exercise  of  thought  is  lost  from 
time  to  time  in  this  species  of  incipient  chaos.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  images  are  really  most  intense,  and 
that  every  idea  assumes  a  body  and  form,  every  image 
a  reality :  finally,  when  the  body  and  the  brain  have 
reached  the  physiological  conditions  of  sleep,  thoughts 
which  had  been  changed  into  hypnagogic  images  in 
the  intermediate  stage  between  sleep  and  waking,  are 
altogether  transformed  into  the  real  images  of  dreams. 


252  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

By  an  effort  of  will  I  have  often  been  able  to 
surprise  myself  in  this  intermediate  stage,  and  the 
same  thing  has  been  done  by  others,  and  it  always 
appears  that  this  is  the  real  moment  of  transition 
from  wakefulness  to  dreaming.  I  have  been  able  to 
verify  the  fact  that  the  first  dream  is  only  the 
continuation  of  our  last  waking  thoughts,  which  have 
now  become  dramatic  and  real.  I  have  also  observed 
that  this  intermediate  stage  between  waking  and 
dreaming,  during  which  the  images  are  real  and 
vivid,  although  we  are  still  conscious  of  our  real 
condition,  goes  on  for  a  long  while,  sometimes  for  a 
whole  night,  with  brief  intervals  of  sleep.  This  has 
occurred  to  me  when  I  was  kept  awake,  either  when 
travelling  at  night,  or  when  I  had  taken  a  large 
draught  of  water  before  lying  down  (other  liquids  or 
food  does  not  produce  the  phenomenon)  or  if  I  have 
been  looking  during  the  day  at  objects  illuminated  by 
dazzling  sunshine.  In  all  these  circumstances  the 
bright  and  vivid  images  appear  reduced  to  an  almost 
miscroscopic  scale,  although  very  distinct  in  form 
and  colour ;  in  ordinary  cases,  the  images  appear 
of  the  ordinary  size,  but  not  without  a  tendency  to 
become  smaller, 

I  believe  that  there  is  a  physical  cause  for  the 
reduction  and  attenuation  of  the  images  in  the 
excessive  excitement  of  the  retina,  or  central  en- 
cephalic organ  in  which  images  are  formed  in  con- 
scious concurrence  with  the  cortical  part  of  the 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  253 

hemispheres.  Owing  to  the  excitement  caused  by 
wakefulness,  by  fatigue,  by  sunshine,  or  in  some  cases 
by  the  condition  of  the  nerves  of  the  stomach,  the 
objective  projection  on  psychical  space,  partly  trans- 
mitted by  heredity  and  gradually  formed  by  associa- 
tions and  local  signs,*  is  arrested  by  the  innate  force 
of  the  image  on  the  organ,  and  it  appears  to  be 
smaller  and  in  proportion  with  the  relative  smallness 
of  the  image  which  is  produced  by  minute  vibrations 
and  by  the  susceptibility  of  the  cellule.  This  inter- 
mediate and  persistent  stage  of  hypnagogic  images 
serves  in  every  way  to  explain  the  physical  genesis  of 
involuntary  hallucinations. 

As  a  proof  that  the  image  physiologically  assumes 
the  form  of  a  real  appearance,  I  may  mention  the 
experience  of  myself  and  others.  When  suddenly 
awakened  from  a  vivid  dream  I  have  sometimes,  even 
when  I  was  fully  awake,  seen  for  an  instant  the 
figures  of  my  dream  still  moving,  and  projected  on 
the  wall.  This  fact  shows  that  even  the  images  of 
our  waking  state  have,  in  the  physiological  conditions 
of  the  brain,  a  tendency  to  take  real  forms,  so  that 
they  may  be  termed  normal,  or  more  properly, 
inchoate  hallucinations,  corrected  by  the  conscious 
efforts  of  our  waking  state  and  external  conscious- 
ness. So  that  it  might  be  said  that  dreams  are  at 
first  the  transformation  of  our  waking  thoughts  into 

*  See  the  theory  by  Lotze  of  local  signs  in  the  formation  of  the 
idea  of  space,  completed  and  modified  by  Wundt  and  others. 


254  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

normal  images  and  hallucinations,  and  afterwards 
into  those  of  dreams,  properly  so  called. 

If  the  hypnagogic  phase  actually  affects  the 
cerebral  cellules  in  connection  with  the  various  senses 
of  which  they  are  the  organs,  the  phases  of  sleep  and 
dreams,  strictly  so  called,  have  more  general  con- 
ditions. The  idea,  converted  into  an  image  presented 
to  the  senses,  may  thus  be  said  to  have  three  stages  : 
that  of  the  waking  state,  which  depends  as  we  have 
said  on  the  intensity  and  vividness  with  which  it  is 
reproduced,  aided  by  a  momentary  detachment  from 
the  real  environment ;  secondly,  the  hypnagogic  phase, 
in  which  there  is  the  physiological  action  of  the 
nervous  centres,  which  produce  the  image,  though 
still  with  the  implicit  consciousness  of  the  waking 
state ;  and  finally,  the  actual  dream,  in  which  this 
implicit  consciousness  is  almost  always  wanting,  and 
the  psychical  exercise  of  thought  is  completely  trans- 
formed into  visions  and  figures  which  are  believed  to 
be  real.  This  in  its  turn  depends  upon  the  other  two 
causes,  and  on  the  physiological  relaxation  of  the 
body,  which  is  to  a  great  extent  isolated,  so  that 
the  effectual  impulses  of  external  nature  are  greatly 
attenuated. 

In  the  waking  state,  the  whole  body  and  all  its 
organs  of  relation  and  movement  are  in  tension. 
The  cerebro-spinal  axis  virtually  excites  the  whole 
muscular  and  peripheral  system  in  such  a  way  that 
relaxation  or  relative  repose  becomes  impossible. 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  255 

But  the  brain,  -with  all  its  dependencies  and  appendices, 
is  not  only  the  organ  of  thought,  but  it  stimulates  and 
directs  our  whole  system,  as  numerous  experiments 
have  shown.  In  the  waking  state  both  these 
functions  are  exercised  equally,  as  far  as  the  im- 
pulses and  functions  of  the  body  are  concerned,  and 
as  long  as  the  psychical  and  organic  characteristics 
of  the  waking  state  continue.  But  in  sleep  the  ex- 
citing influence  of  the  brain  is  diminished,  and  the 
brain  transmits  much  less  of  the  normal  excitement 
and  normal  tension  to  the  spinal  axis  with  its  rami- 
fications in  the  afferent  and  efferent  nerves ;  in  the 
waking  state  an  external  impression  is  promptly  con- 
veyed to  the  centres,  whence  it  returns  in  correspond- 
ing movements  with  the  usual  connection  and  rapidity, 
whether  reflex  or  deliberate.  Since  in  sleep  the 
relative  condition  is  flaccid  and  torpid,  this  action  no 
longer  takes  place.  For  if  the  brain  be  affected  by 
strong  impressions,  and  these  are  followed  by  corre- 
sponding movements  due  to  reflex  action,  as  is  often 
the  case,  even  in  sleep,  the  dreamer  is  only  obscurely 
conscious  of  them,  and  they  almost  wholly  depend  on 
the  spinal  axis,  and  the  peripheral  ganglia. 

As  we  have  said,  the  function  of  the  brain  is 
duplex;  it  stimulates  and  directs,  and  it  is  also 
sentient  and  conscious,  and  this  second  function  is 
persistent  in  dreams.  Although  the  brain  is  no 
longer  directed  by  a  power  which  dictates  psychical 
acts  and  phenomena,  yet  its  automatic  action  is  not 
12 


256  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

destroyed,  and  to  this  the  apparent  reality  of  images 
seen  is  owing,  since  there  is  no  longer  any  distraction 
from  the  external  world,  or,  at  all  events,  its  impulses 
are  so  attenuated  as  to  be  unobserved.  In  such 
conditions  past  images  recur  with  an  appearance  of 
reality  owing  to  the  mnemonic  and  automatic  action 
of  the  brain;  such  a  tendency  exists  in  the  waking 
state,  and  the  images  are  associated  and  dissociated  in 
a  thousand  ways,  by  means  of  analogies,  resemblances, 
former  combinations  of  facts,  and  series  of  facts  analo- 
gous to  those  of  the  waking  state,  and  are  modified 
by  suggestive  impulses.-  We  have  experimental  proof, 
to  which  I  can  add  my  own  irrefragable  witness,  that 
the  stimulating  influence  exerted  by  the  brain  in  the 
waking  state  is  dormant  in  sleep,  and  that  only  its 
automatic  act  of  representation  remains  active,  with 
the  occasional  exercise  of  an  aroused  and  conscious 
will. 

The  following  strange  and  unpleasant  phenomenon 
generally  occurs  to  me  once  or  twice  a  year.  All  at 
once,  in  the  midst  of  a  deep  sleep,  I  become  wide 
awake;  I  am  fully  conscious  of  myself,  of  the  place 
where  I  am,  of  my  position  and  the  like,  and  wish  to 
move  like  a  person  who  is  fully  awake.  Yet  for  some 
time  this  is  impossible ;  the  psychical,  cerebral  faculty 
is  perfectly  awake,  and  master  of  itself,  but  not  the 

F  stimulating  faculty,  so  that  the  limbs  do  not  respond 

to  the  first  impulse  of  the  will.  All  my  efforts  are 
unsuccessful;  I  only  succeed  in  escaping  from  this 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  257 

unpleasant  situation  by  uttering  with  great  difficulty 
some  inarticulate  sound,  which  acts  as  a  shock,  and  I 
thus  obtain  the  mastery  of  my  body,  for  the  nerves  of 
speech  and  the  muscular  movements  of  articulation 
also  fail  to  answer  to  my  will.  If  this  occurs  when  I 
am  alone,  the  struggle  is  severe,  and  there  is  a  violent 
shock  to  the  whole  body  before  its  equilibrium  is  re- 
stored and  the  motor  function  of  the  brain  resumes 
its  office. 

It  is  therefore  manifest  that  the  stimulating 
function  of  the  brain  is  dormant  in  sleep  and  dreams, 
but  its  automatic,  psychical  function  persists;  it 
sometimes  happens  that  the  stimulus  of  the  will  is 
awakened  before  the  stimulus  of  motion,  and  that 
the  brain  may  be  aroused  to  consciousness  for  some 
moments  before  it  has  resumed  its  normal  functions 
as  a  stimulating  organ,  which  were  attenuated  and 
relaxed  in  sleep.  The  abnormal  condition  of  paralysis 
proves  and  confirms  this  fact. 

Let  us  now  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  various 
psychical  and  physiological  conditions  which  aim  at 
and  often  succeed  in  presenting  to  the  mind  a  mere 
representative  sign  as  a  substantial  and  real  image. 
What  is  the  cause  of  the  apparent  reality  of  dreams  ? 
The  image  is  clearly  a  psychical  phenomenon,  con- 
taining a  sensible  element  of  which  we  are  conscious ; 
the  fundamental  faculty  of  the  perception  is  exerted 
on  it  as  on  a  real  object,  and  the  immediate  results 
are  precisely  identical.  The  reader  will  remember 


258  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

that  we  have  shown  that  a  phenomenon  involves  the 
intuitive  idea  of  an  active  subject,  so  that  the  image 
also,  in  accordance  with  the  innate  faculty  of  per- 
ception, must  normally  appear  to  the  mind  as  such. 
When  this  is  not  the  case,  it  is  because  the  normal 
effect  of  natural  phenomena,  to  which  our  attention 
is  constantly  directed,  and  .our  mental  education  and 
hereditary  influence,  have  accustomed  us  to  dis- 
tinguish at  once  between  the  mere  idea  and  the  real 
object,  and  thus  we  discern  the  difference  between 
the  normal  action  of  thought  and  sense,  and  illusions, 
hallucinations,  and  dreams.  But  since  these  psy- 
chical and  physiological  conditions  lose  their  force 
when  the  habit  and  actions  of  our  waking  state  are 
dormant,  the  primitive  and  innate  entification  of  the 
image  quickly  recurs,  as  we  can  plainly  see  from  the 
previous  analysis. 

This  is  so  much  the  case,  that  some  savage 
peoples  even  now  find  it  hard  to  distinguish  real 
events  from  those  of  dreams,  and  this  is  owing  to 
a  defect  in  their  memory  or  to  the  imperfection  of 
their  language.  In  fact,  all  civilized  and  barbarous 
peoples  in  the  world  have  without  exception  believed, 
and  still  believe,  in  the  reality  of  images  seen  in 
dreams,  and  their  personification  has  been  the  source 
of  an  immense  number  of  myths.  Even  now, 
with  all  our  civilization  and  advanced  science,  not 
only  the  common  people,  but  many  of  those  in 
fashionable  and  tolerably  cultivated  society,  believe 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  259 

in  the  reality  of  dreams  and  in  their  hallucinations, 
and  derive  from  them  fears,  hopes,  and  warnings  for 
their  future  life. 

I  will  give  one  instance  in  a  thousand  to  prove 
the  innate  tendency  even  in  the  act  of  dreaming  to 
transform  the  image  into  a  real  object.  It  appeared 
to  me  that  I  was  in  a  large  room  filled  with  acquaint- 
ances and  strangers,  who  discussed  an  event  which 
had  really  occurred  in  the  city  a  few  days  before. 
All  at  once  I  raised  my  eyes  to  the  wall  of  the  room, 
and  saw  a  large  picture,  representing  a  landscape 
with  distant  mountains,  streams,  cottages,  and 
animals.  As  I  looked,  the  picture  was  gradually 
transformed  into  a  real  object,  and  I  found  myself, 
together  with  the  company  before  mentioned,  in  the 
midst  of  the  fields,  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and 
within  one  of  the  cottages. 

In  another  dream,  I  appeared  to  be  conversing  with 
an  old  soldier  on  the  shores  of  a  lake;  after  some 
incoherent  talk,  he  began  to  describe  a  bloody  battle 
in  which  he  had  taken  part ;  he  had  not  gone  far 
before  the  narrative  was  changed  for  an  actual 
occurrence,  and  I  was  in  the  midst  of  a  real  battle, 
such  as  the  soldier  had  undertaken  to  describe. 
Another  night  I  dreamed  that  I  was  reading  a  tragic 
poem,  relating  terrible  deeds  of  blood  and  rapine,  and 
suddenly  I  seemed  to  have  become  an  actor  or  real 
spectator  of  that  which  I  had  at  first  read  in  a  book. 
In  another  strange  dream  I  was  going  over  a  difficult 


260  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

pass  in  a  hired  carriage,  and  I  seemed  to  see  before 
me  a  friend  from  whom  I  had  parted  on  the  previous 
day,  when  he  got  into  an  omnibus  to  return  to  the 
country.  I  soon  saw  in  the  distance  a  large  coach- 
builder's  establishment,  a  vast  enclosure  with  sheds 
and  carriages,  and  in  the  piazza  I  saw  the  manager, 
a  man  I  knew,  who  had  really  some  appointment  in 
a  carriage  manufactory;  the  building  recalled  by 
association  the  familiar  appearance  of  the  high 
chimneys  which  rose  above  the  roof,  and  while 
thinking  of  those  chimneys  with  my  eyes  fixed  on 
the  manager,  he  appeared  to  me  to  be  changed  into 
a  very  high  chimney,  still  bearing  a  human  face. 
Finally,  not  to  multiply  examples,  I  remember  a 
dream  in  which  I  was  present  at  a  popular  dis- 
turbance, where  one  woman,  more  furious  than  the 
rest,  came  to  blows  with  her  husband,  and  called 
him  a  dog.  Suddenly  the  scene  changed,  and  I  was 
transported  to  a  courtyard  in  which  there  were 
poultry,  pigs,  and  a  fine  dog  of  my  acquaintance, 
called  Lightning.  Again  the  scene  changed,  and  I 
found  myself  in  a  country  district  with  some  friends, 
exposed  to  a  violent  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning. 

We  clearly  see  from  these  facts  that  whatever 
may  be  presented  to  the  imagination  is  transformed 
into  a  real  object  in  the  dream  itself,  so  that  it  might 
be  called  a  dream  within  a  dream,  and  in  the  last 
instance  the  transmutation  passes  through  three 
images  and  consecutive  objects.  This  transmutation 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  261 

not  only  consists  in  the  transition  from  our  waking 
thoughts  to  the  image  of  our  dreams,  but  it  takes 
place  in  the  act  of  dreaming ;  such  is  the  power  of 
the  faculty  of  perception,  in  which  we  find  the  first 
origin  of  myth  in  man,  and  its  roots  also  in  the 
animal  kingdom.  Thus  the  genesis  of  myth,  as  far 
as  the  entification  of  the  image  is  concerned,  is  the 
same  as  that  of  dreams. 

The  normal  illusions  of  the  senses,  which  are 
believed  to  be  real  by  primitive  men,  and  by  those 
ignorant  of  physical  laws,  have  a  similar  origin.  The 
objection  of  such  phenomena  as  a  mirage,  or  the 
tremulous  effect  produced  in  tropical  regions  by  the 
refraction  and  reflection  of  light  on  trees,  rocks,  and 
mountains,  so  well  described  by  Humboldt,  is  due  to 
ignorance  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  this  is  in  fact 
an  entification  of  the  phenomenon,  occasioned  by  the 
innate  tendency  to  animation  which  is  proper  to 
the  perception.  In  this  it  is  easy  to  trace  the  genesis 
both  of  myth  and  dreams.  The  fact  of  hallucination 
is  more  complex,  even  in  its  normal  state,  that  is,  in 
those  general  conditions  of  mind  and  body  in  which 
reason  has  complete  command  over  us. 

Without  entering  into  any  analysis  of  the  various 
forms  of  hallucination  of  which  many  able  psycho- 
logists and  physicians  of  the  insane  have  treated,  let 
us  turn  to  the  more  ordinary  cases  in  which  an  image 
of  the  mind  is  projected  on  the  external  world  so 
as  to  appear  real.  The  roots  of  such  a  phenomenon 


262  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

are  strictly  organic,  and  belong  to  the  centres  in 
which  the  image  is  formed,  as  we  have  already 
observed ;  this  image  sometimes  stands  out  in  such 
vivid  relief  on  the  psychical  space  that  it  seems  to 
be  an  external,  not,  as  it  usually  appears  in  less  vivid 
form,  an  internal  intuition.  The  hallucinations  which 
Nicolai  describes  himself  to  have  experienced  may 
be  taken  as  a  classical  example.  When  Andral  was 
returning  from  an  autopsy,  he  clearly  saw  the  corpse 
stretched  before  him  as  he  entered  his  room.  Goethe, 
Byron,  and  many  others,  have  been  affected  in  the 
same  way.  I  myself  have  occasionally  had  hallucina- 
tions of  the  kind  when  in  a  perfectly  healthy  condition 
of  mind  and  body ;  one,  in  particular,  of  a  very  vivid 
character,  occurred  when  I  awoke  one  morning  and 
seemed  to  see  a  tall  and  venerable  priest  entering 
my  chamber.  It  is  needless  to  multiply  examples ; 
similar  facts  abound  in  classic  books  in  English, 
French,  German,  and  other  languages.  Let  us  rather 
study  the  phenomenon  and  trace  its  origin. 

It  is  clear,  on  the  one  side  that  the  images  of  the 
hallucinations  of  sight  or  hearing  appear  to  have  a 
real  existence,  so  that  they  may  be  observed  and 
studied  with  ease ;  and  it  is  also  certain  that  this 
image  has  no  external  existence,  and  is  simply  a 
cerebral  fact,  due  to  the  organs  adapted  for  per- 
ception. Without  considering  the  cause  of  the  ex- 
ternal projection,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded, 
since  perhaps  its  physiological  and  psychical  genesis 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  263 

is  not  yet  fully  understood,   we   must   consider  the 
image,  so  far  as  it  is  believed  to  be  real. 

In  cases  of  normal  hallucination  the  reason  is 
intact,  and  the  observer  is  conscious  of  the  illusion, 
yet  notwithstanding  this  positive  judgment  the  image 
has  an  appearance  of  complete  reality.  The  cause 
of  this  illusion  is  evidently  the  same  as  that  of  the 
illusions  of  dreams,  and  of  the  origin  of  myth ;  namely, 
that  everywhere  and  always  the  mental  or  natural 
phenomenon  and  its  image  are  respectively  entified. 
In  the  normal  waking  state,  habit  and  other  causes 
on  which  we  have  touched  render  our  ideas  of  things 
altogether  immaterial,  as  merely  psychical  forms  and 
representative  signs,  but  when  the  excitement  of  the 
organs  increases,  so  as  to  present  them  to  the  con- 
sciousness as  objective  images,  then,  owing  to  the 
interruption  of  the  ordinary  process,  they  are  sud- 
denly entified,  and  appear  as  an  external  phenomenon. 
Hallucinations  are  therefore  explained  by  our  theory, 
and  it  is  further  confirmed  by  the  hallucinations  of 
animals,  and  especially  by  the  delirium-  of  dogs  and 
other  animals  affected  by  hydrophobia,  or  by  cerebral 
excitement  artificially  produced  by  alcoholic  and 
exhilarating  drugs. 

If  a  man  is  habitually  subject  to  many  and 
various  hallucinations,  and  his  sane  judgment  esteems 
them  to  be  such,  they  are  undoubtedly  unusual 
phenomena,  but  they  do  not  in  any  way  injure  the 
rational  exercise  of  the  mind.  It  is  only  when  he 


264  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

believes  the  images  to  be  real  that  the  abnormal  state 
begins,  termed  delirium  if  it  is  of  short  duration,  and 
madness  if  it  is  permanent.  We  must  examine 
hallucination  under  these  new  conditions. 

In  the  delirium  of  fever,  or  in  various  forms  of 
disease,  the  cerebral  excitement  is  so  great  that  not 
only  the  deliberate  exercise  of  reason,  but  the  power 
of  estimating  external  objects  is  lost,  and  the  organs 
of  the  senses  are  so  completely  altered,  that  the 
perceptions  themselves  are  exaggerated  and  confused. 
In  this  state  hallucination  reaches  its  highest  point, 
and  .the  patient  sees,  hears,  and  feels,  directly  or 
indirectly,  strange  and  terrible  /things :  wild  beasts, 
'  enemies  of  all  kind,  torments ;  or  again,  pleasing  and 
agreeable  images.  Independently  of  the  alteration  in 
various  sensations  produced  by  the  morbid  alteration 
of  the  special  organs  which  induce  them,  the  real 
cause  of  this  phenomenon  consists  in  the  objection  of 
mental  sensations  and  images.  Such  an  objection  of 
images  or  sensations,  considered  in  the  act  which 
transforms  them  into  a  reality,  depends  on  the  same 
cause  as  all  other  acts  of  perception;  there  is  always  an 
entification  of  the  phenomenon,  which  in  this  case  is  a 
vivid  internal  image,  appearing  to  be  external  and  real. 

The  entification  of  images  is  still  more  direct  and 
powerful  because  in  this  morbid  crisis  the  necessary 
corrections  made  by  reason  cannot  take  place,  since 
the  sick  man  is  for  the  time  deprived  of  it,  and  he  is 
in  fact  a  dreamer,  whose  condition  is  intensified  by 


DREAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  265 

abnormal  excitement.  Entification  is  now  displayed  in 
its  nude  and  native  state,  and  serves  to  explain  the 
constant  mental  process,  and  the  true  nature  of  the 
representations  of  the  intellect.  The  transition  is 
easy  from  delirium  to  madness,  for  although  an 
insane  person  is  not  always  delirious,  but  sometimes 
calm  and  composed,  yet  there  is  a  fundamental  re- 
semblance to  delirium  in  the  change  in  his  states  of 
consciousness  and  its  relative  organs,  which  imply  a 
constant  hallucination.  The  most  famous  and  acute 
physicians  of  the  insane  estimate  that  eighty  out  of  a 
hundred  insane  persons  are  subject  to  hallucinations. 
The  morbid  condition  which  generates  them  is  also 
produced  by  debility,  by  anaemia,  and  the  senile  decay 
of  the  cerebral  organs,  since  they  occur  in  dementia, 
idiocy,  and  old  age,  and  the  physiological  and  mental 
causes  are  the  same ;  the  power  of  fixing  the  attention 
and  governing  the  thoughts  is  diminished,  owing  to 
the  weakening  of  the  vivid  consciousness  of  the  ex- 
ternal world,  produced  by  a  torpidity  of  the  afferent 
organs.  In  these  cases  the  recollections  which  are  not 
altogether  lost  sometimes  reappear  as  hallucinations. 
The  hallucinations  of  madness,  in  its  various  forms 
of  dementia,  idiocy,  and  dotage,  are  all,  apart  from 
their  morbid  and  organic  conditions,  derived  from  the 
same  source  which  produces  myths,  dreams,  and 
normal  hallucinations ;  the  objective  entification  of 
images  is  due  to  the  innate  faculty  of  the  perception, 
which  leads  to  the  immediate  personification  of  any 


266  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

given  phenomenon.  We  have  shown  that,  given  a 
sensation,  there  naturally  arises  the  implicit  notion 
of  a  subject  and  a  cause,  and  this  natural  impulse  is 
further  developed  by  the  influence  of  heredity;  both 
in  man  and  animals  the  constant  and  powerful  sense 
of  individual  life  is  infused  into  the  phenomenon  per- 
ceived. 

The  various  forms  of  madness  throw  a  clearer 
light  on  this  necessary  and  primitive  fact  of  human 
and  animal  perception.  The  act  of  sensation  may 
then  be  said  to  be  under  its  own  direction,  and 
generates  itself  in  the  automatic  exercise  of  the  brain, 
as  in  dreams,  without  the  explicit,  disturbing,  and 
modifying  influence  of  reflection,  and  the  habit  of 
rational  analysis.  The  act  of  sensation  is  spontane- 
ously completed  and  developed  in  and  with  its  own 
constituents,  and  since  it  is  isolated  from  other  modes 
and  exercises  of  thought,  its  real  nature  appears. 
The  hallucinations  of  madness,  produced  by  the 
mental  realization  of  images,  either  detached  or  in 
association,  prove  that  all  our  mental  images  or  ideas 
have  a  tendency  in  themselves  to  become  real  objects 
of  consciousness ;  with  this  difference,  that  a  sane 
man  recognizes  these  mental  entifications  by  their 
mobility  and  incessant  alterations,  which  contrast 
with  the  fixity  and  permanence  of  external  and  cosmic 
phenomena. 

The  following  considerations  will  confirm  the 
truth  of  these  facts.  In  our  advanced  state  of 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  267 

civilization,  thought  may,  after  so  many  ages'  exercise, 
almost  be  said  to  have  become  part  of  the  organism 
by  the  indisputable  effect  of  heredity;  and  the  phe- 
nomenon of  the  recurrence  to  memory  of  past  facts 
and  distant  places  is  obvious  and  intelligible,  since 
our  judgment  of  them  is  never  subject  to  illusion,  or 
only  in  rare  instances  and  in  abnormal  conditions. 
But  this  judgment  is  less  obvious  and  easy  in  the 
case  of  primitive  savages  who  have  advanced  little 
beyond  the  innate  exercise  of  the  intelligence.  The 
rational  analysis  of  the  states  of  consciousness  has 
not  been  made,  and  hence  their  special  and  general 
distinctions  are  seen  with  difficulty  or  not  seen  at  all. 
Consequently  the  primitive  and  natural  amazement 
of  man  must  have  been  great,  when  by  day,  and 
still  more  in  the  lonely  silence  of  night,  persons, 
places,  and  his  own  past  acts  recurred  to  his  mind, 
and  he  was  able  to  contemplate  them  as  if  they  were 
actually  present.  He  was  incapable  of  giving  an  ex- 
planation of  this  marvellous  fact  in  the  rational  and 
reflective  manner  which  is  possible  to  psychologists 
and  to  all  civilized  men.  This  revival  of  the  past 
appeared  to  him  as  a  fact  in  its  simple  and  spon- 
taneous reality ;  he  made  no  attempt  to  explain  it, 
but  it  was  presented  to  his  consciousness  like  all 
other  natural  facts.  The  only  explanation  of  the  phe- 
nomenon appeared  to  him  to  be  that  these  images  did 
not  recur  to  the  mind  by  the  necessary  action  of  the 
brain,  but  that  by  their  own  spontaneous  power  they 


268  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

were  recalled  to  take  their  part  within  his  breast: 
he  supposed  the  phenomenon  to  be  objective,  not 
subjective. 

Prophecy,  for  instance,  was  often  supposed  to  be  a 
recollection,  and  some  primitive  accounts  of  the  genesis 
of  things,  handed  down  by  tradition,  were  reputed  to 
be  inspired,  and  objectively  dictated  to  the  mind. 
The  Platonic  theory  of  reminiscence  relies  on  these 
conceptions.  The  power  which  recalled  the  images  to 
memory  was  supposed  to  be  external,  and  identical 
with  that  which  raises  up  the  images  of  dreams ; 
primitive  man  traced  a  fanciful  identity  between  the 
phenomena  of  memory  and  of  dreams,  and  the  dis- 
tinction between  them  was  not  supposed  to  consist  in 
the  actual  images,  but  in  the  modes  of  their  appear- 
ance in  the  waking  or  sleeping  state.  The  images 
assumed  in  the  memory  a  relative  reality,  somewhat 
resembling  those  of  dreams.  In  fact,  some  savages  do 
not  clearly  distinguish  between  the  images  of  these 
states,  and  see  little  difference  between  the  spontaneous 
recollection  of  things,  the  fancy,  and  dreaming.  This 
also  occurs  in  children,  who  at  a  very  early  age  often 
call  by  name  absent  persons  and  things  which  recur 
to  their  memory ;  and  on  the  other  hand  they  do  not 
distinguish  the  facts  of  real  life  from  those  of  dreams. 
I  have  observed  this  fact  in  several  children. 

Among  primitive  peoples  it  often  happens  that  an 
object  with  which  they  are  unfamiliar,  but  which  has 
some  analogy  with  those  with  which  they  are 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  269 

acquainted,  becomes  associated  with  the  latter,  and  is 
constituted  into  a  compound  being,  endowed  with  life. 
The  Esquimaux  believed  the  vessels  commanded  by 
Eoss  to  be  alive,  since  they  moved  without  oars.  When 
Cook  touched  at  New  Zealand,  the  inhabitants  sup- 
posed his  ship  to  be  a  whale  with  sails.  The  Bosjes- 
manns  ascribed  life  to  a  waggon,  and  imagined  that  it 
required  the  nourishment  of  grass.  When  an  Arauco 
saw  a  compass,  he  believed  that  it  was  an  animal  ; 
and  the  same  belief  has  been  held  by  savages  of 
musical  instruments,  such  as  grinding  organs,  which 
play  tunes  mechanically.  Herbert  Spencer  mentions 
similar  behaviour  in  some  men  belonging  to  one  of  the 
hill  tribes  in  India ;  when  they  saw  Dr.  Hooker  pull 
out  a  spring  measuring  tape,  which  went  back  into  its 
case  of  itself,  they  were  terrified  and  ran  away,  con- 
vinced that  it  was  a  snake.  From  these  facts,  which 
might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  it  not  only  appears 
that  everything  is  spontaneously  animated  by  man, 
but  also  that  the  images  of  his  memory  are  fused  with 
those  which  are  actually  present,  since  their  respective 
factors  are  esteemed  to  be  equally  real.  This  primitive 
objection  of  the  images  of  the  memory  also  occurs  in 
the  mythical  representations  of  dreams,  which,  as  the 
images  of  absent  objects,  have  much  in  common  with 
the  images  of  the  memory.  In  fact,  all  peoples,  as  we 
have  seen,  have  believed  in  the  reality  of  dreams. 

The  North  American  Indians  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  two  souls,  one  of  which  remains  in  the  body 


270  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

while  the  other  wanders  at  pleasure  during  the  dream. 
The  New  Zealander  supposes  that  the  dreamer's  soul 
leaves  his  body,  and  that  he  meets  the  things  of  which 
he  dreams  in  the  course  of  his  wanderings.  The  Dyak 
also  believes  that  the  soul  is  absent  during  sleep, 
and  that  the  things  seen  in  dreams  really  occur. 
Garcilasso  asserts  that  this  was  likewise  the  Peruvians' 
belief.  A  tribe  in  Java  abstains  from  waking  a  sleeper, 
since  his  soul  is  absent  in  dreams.  The  Karens  say 
that  dreams  are  what  the  Id  or  soul  sees  during  sleep. 
This  theory  is  also  found  among  more  civilized  peoples, 
as  for  instance  in  the  Vedic  philosophy  and  the 
Kabbala,  and  it  has  come  down  to  our  days  among 
the  common  people,  and  even  among  those  of  some 
culture. 

One  belief  connected  with  dreams,  generally 
diffused  among  all  savage  and  civilized  peoples,  is 
that  of  the  appearance  of  dead  men,  or  of  their  ghosts. 
Of  this  all  the  traditions  and  popular  myths  in  the 
world  are  full.  Such  a  belief,  first  excited  by  the 
vision  of  the  dead  in  dreams,  is  easily  aroused  in  the 
savage  or  uneducated  mind,  even  when  he  recalls  to 
memory  while  he  is  alone,  and  especially  at  night, 
the  image  of  one  whom  he  loved  in  life.  Affection, 
and  the  lively  emotion  of  sorrow  and  desire  give  such 
a  life-like  appearance  to  these  images  that  they 
become  objectively  present  to  the  mind,  to  console  the 
mourner,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  to  threaten  the 
murderer.  I  have  more  than  once  heard  persons  of 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  271 

all  classes,  after  the  death  of  children,  of  a  husband 
or  wife,  whom  they  have  injured  or  imagine  that 
they  have  injured,  either  during  life  or  by  not 
fulfilling  their  last  wishes,  declare  in  all  good  faith 
that  the  form  of  the  dead  is  often  present  to  their 
memory  and  visible  while  they  are  awake ;  thus  im- 
plying that  the  dead  mercifully  appear  to  comfort 
their  mourning  friends,  or  else  to  reproach  them  for 
not  fulfilling  their  promises.  In  a  word,  these  images 
did  not  seem  to  them  to  be  subjective,  and  an  ordinary 
phenomenon  of  the  memory,  but  objective  and  personal 
apparitions  within  the  soul.  The  cases  are  not  rare 
in  certain  dispositions  of  mind,  in  which  the  projection 
of  these  images  on  the  memory  gradually  produces 
madness.  We  must  not  forget  that  psychical 
phenomena  in  general  are  very  differently  regarded  by 
the  savage  and  the  civilized  man,  since  the  latter  is 
accustomed  to  analysis,  and  to  the  real  distinctions  of 
things.  If  this  canon  is  forgotten  we  shall  fall  into 
grave  errors  in  the  attempt  to  interpret  the  evolution 
and  primitive  history  of  thought  and  of  humanity. 

We  shall  more  readily  understand  the  nature  and 
genesis  of  all  these  hallucinations,  and  of  normal  and 
abnormal  illusions,  if  we  study  another  phenomenon 
of  frequent  occurrence  which  I  myself  have  often  had 
occasion  to  observe.  I  mean  the  illusion  or  hallucina- 
tion which  does  not  consist  in  the  absolute  projection 
of  an  internal  image  with  an  external  semblance  of 
reality,  but  which  presents  it  in  the  twilight  as  an 


272  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

object  of  uncertain  form,  either  in  a  room  or  out 
of  doors.  It  often  happens,  as  I  and  others  have 
experienced  from  childhood,  that  a  dress  or  other 
object  lying  by  chance  on  a  chair,  or  on  the  ground, 
or  hanging  on  a  piece  of  furniture  or  a  peg,  seen  in 
connection  with  the  other  things  near  it,  is  trans- 
formed into  a  person  or  animal,  in  a  sitting  or  stand- 
ing posture  or  lying  at  full  length,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
spectre  or  phantasm ;  somewhat  like  the  figures  which 
we  alt  take  pleasure  in  tracing  in  the  strange  and 
mobile  forms  of  clouds.  The  fantastic  figure  some- 
times appears  instantaneously  and  at  the  first  glance, 
sometimes  it  is  only  gradually  made  out ;  but  in  both 
cases,  as  we  shall  see,  its  genesis  is  the  same. 
Although  in  the  former  case  that  which  in  the  latter 
is  gradually  developed  appears  to  be  developed  all  at 
once,  yet  in  reality  it  passes  through  the  same  stages. 
Let  us  now  consider  the  second  mode ;  and  in 
order  to  be  perfectly  accurate,  I  will  describe  one  out 
of  many  apparitions  which  I  saw  so  recently  that  its 
gradual  formation  is  retained  distinctly  in  my  memory. 
On  a  small  three-legged  table  beside  my  bed  there  was 
a  little  oval  mirror,  on  which  hung  a  woman's  cap, 
which  fell  partly  over  the  glass:  there  was  also  an 
easy  chair,  on  which  I  had  thrown  my  shirt  before 
going  to  bed,  while  my  shoes  were  as  usual  on  the 
floor.  I  awoke  towards  morning,  and  as  I  chanced  to 
look  round  the  large  room,  in  the  uncertain  light  of  a 
night-light  which  was  almost  burnt  out,  my  eyes  fell 


«  DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  273 

upon  the  easy  chair.  Immediately  I  seemed  to  see  a 
head  above  it,  corresponding  to  the  mirror,  and  a 
vague  and  confused  image  of  a  person  seated  there. 
As  I  am  accustomed  to  do  in  similar  cases,  I  closed 
my  eyes  for  a  little,  and  on  reopening  them  I  looked 
at  the  appearance  with  attention  and  interest ;  this 
time  the  person  or  phantasm  had  a  less  confused  out- 
line, although  I  did  not  see  the  form  distinctly,  nor 
the  features,  nor  its  precise  position.  Yet  in  this 
second  observation,  I  obtained  an  idea  of  it  as  a 
whole,  and  in  details. 

On  further  examination  the  face  and  person  stood 
out  more  clearly,  and  the  features  became  more  dis- 
tinct, the  longer  I  looked.  Each  accidental  fold  or 
shadow  on  the  cap  was  transformed  into  bright  eyes, 
strongly  marked  eyebrows,  into  the  nose,  mouth, 

hair,  beard,  and  neck ;  so  that  as  I  went  on  I  had 

•? 
before   me  a  perfectly  chiselled   face   corresponding 

to  the  type  which  had  first  flashed  across  my  mind 
as  the  confused  impression  of  a  face  conveyed  by 
the  cap  and  mirror.  The  same  process  of  evolution 
was  pursued  with  respect  to  the  limbs,  the  breast, 
arms,  legs,  and  feet ;  parts  of  the  body  which  at  first 
appeared  to  be  vague  and  indeterminate  gradually, 
and  as  if  by  enchantment  issued  distinctly  from 
every  fold  of  the  shirt,  from  every  shadow,  angle, 
and  line,  so  as  to  compose  what  Dante  would  call 
una  persona  certa.  Finally  I  saw  before  me  a  man 
dressed  in  white,  of  an  athletic  form,  sitting 


274  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE.  * 

in  the  easy  chair  and  looking  fixedly  at  me:  the 
whole  body  was  in  harmony  with  the  head,  which 
had  first  resulted  from  the  rude  resemblance  to 
a  human  face.  The  image  appeared  to  me  so  real 
and  distinct  that  on  rising  from  the  bed  and 
gradually  approaching  it,  its  form  did  not  vanish, 
even  when  I  was  near  enough  to  touch  the  object 
which  produced  it.  An  analysis  showed  that  the 
features,  limbs,  and  position  corresponded  in  every 
point  with  the  folds  and  relative  position  of  the  articles 
of  dress  which  had  formed  it.  A  similar  process, 
issuing  in  such  apparitions,  is  a  frequent  cause  of 
illusions,  which  in  the  case  of  ingenuous,  super- 
stitious, and  primitive  peoples,  may  lead  to  the  firm 
conviction  that  they  have  seen  an  apparition.  This 
has  certainly  been  the  case  in  primitive  and  even  in 
civilized  times,  and  has  given  occasion  to  nr^ths, 
legends,  and  the  worship  of  tutelary  deities  and  saints. 

If  we  consider  the  causes  of  such  a  phenomenon, 
and  analyze  its  elements  and  motives,  we  shall,  I 
think,  discover  that  it  goes  far  to  explain  many 
normal  and  abnormal  hallucinations. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  in  man  a  deep  sense 
of  the  analogies  of  things,  partly  developed  by  the 
organic  tendency  to  regard  any  given  object  of 
perception  as  subjective  and  causative,  and  to  infuse 
into  it  our  own  animal  life,  a  tendency  confirmed 
by  education  and  the  practice  of  daily  life.  Such 
analogies,  which  find  their  expression  in  metaphor, 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  275 

are  very  vivid  and  persistent  in  the  vulgar  and  in 
those  persons  who  approximate  most  closely  to  the 
primitive  ingenuousness  of  the  intelligence.  The 
most  frequent  analogies  are  between  natural  pheno- 
mena and  objects  and  animal  forms.  Analogies  are 
also  found  between  the  various  forms  of  inanimate 
natural  objects,  but  the  former  are  more  usual,  and 
especially  those  which  refer  to  the  human  form. 
There  are  numerous  and  familiar  instances  of  the 
names  of  men  or  women  given  to  mountains,  rocks, 
and  crags,  because  they  have  some  remote  resemblance 
to  some  human  feature  or  limb.  Every  day  we  may 
be  called  upon  to  see  a  face  in  some  mountain,  stone, 
or  trunk  of  a  tree,  in  the  outline  of  the  landscape, 
a  wreath  of  mist  or  cloud.  We  are  told  to  observe 
the  eyes,  nose,  mouth,  the  arms  and  legs,  and  so  on.* 
Every  one  must  remember  to  have  often  heard  of 
such  resemblances,  even  if  he  has  not  himself 
observed  them.  All  the  facts  and  laws  which  we 
have  observed  explain  why  the  sudden  appearance 
of  some  vague  form  in  an  uncertain  light,  reminding 
us  in  a  confused  way  of  the  human  figure,  instantly 
causes  us  to  trace  a  resemblance  to  man  rather 
than  to  any  thing  else.  It  must  be  noted,  as  my 
experiment  has  already  proved,  that  in  this  first 

*  Sometimes  the  name  of  a  person,  or  of  some  part  of  the  human 
form,  has  been  bestowed  on  a  natural  object  without  reference  to  their 
analogy,  but  in  this  case  the  epithet  has  the  converse  effect  of  leading 
us  to  imagine  that  it  possesses  the  features  or  limbs  of  the  human 
form.  And  this  is  of  equal  value  for  our  present  inquiry. 


276  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

sketch  of  a  phantasm  in  human  form,  a  general, 
though  indefinite  type  of  the  whole  figure  has  spon- 
taneously arisen,  to  which  it  is  made  to  correspond. 
This  is  the  key  to  the  ultimate  perception  of  the 
phenomenon.  What  may  be  called  the  prophetic 
type  of  the  figure  which  will  afterwards  appear  to 
us  in  all  its  details,  although  it  may  seem  to  be  pro- 
duced by  external  resemblance,  is  in  fact  the  product 
of  the  mind,  which  has  been  unconsciously  exercised 
in  its  construction. 

In  fact,  out  of  the  immense  variety  in  faces,  and 
in  the  general  form  of  persons,  of  gestures,  fashions 
of  dress,  attitudes  in  rest  and  motion,  which  are  in- 
delibly impressed  on  the  memory,  every  one  con- 
structs general  types  for  himself;  types  which  are 
revealed  in  the  allusions  made  in  our  daily  conversa- 
tion to  the  resemblances  which  we  are  continually 
observing.  These  remain  in  the  memory,  with  all  the 
manifold  resemblances,  as  well  as  the  ideal  of  certain 
types  in  which  the  numerous  forms  we  have  seen 
and  compared  are  formulated.  We  know  that  when 
the  memory  has  been  dormant,  which  is  often  the 
case,  it  may  be  awakened  by  the  stimulus  of  associa- 
tion, of  analogy,  or  of  will,  so  as  to  reproduce  the 
forgotten  ideas  and  sensations  which  are  thus  again 
presented  to  the  consciousness.  When,  therefore,  one 
or  more  objects  are  seen  in  an  uncertain  light,  so  as 
to  present  a  confused  appearance  of  the  human  form, 
its  general  lineaments  are  unconsciously  made  by  us 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  277 

to  correspond  with  the  human  type  already  existing 
in  the  memory,  and  this  type  presides  in  the  sub- 
sequent composition  of  the  reproducing  artist  who 
observes  the  phantasm.  The  unconscious  mental 
labour  which  is  accomplished  in  the  reproducing 
cellules  of  past  impressions  and  ideas  by  the  instan- 
taneous creation  of  the  type,  gathers  round  this  type 
the  form  and  features  corresponding  with  it,  which 
had  its  earlier  existence  in  our  own  experience.  The 
external  pose  and  indefinite  modification  of  the  objects 
appear  to  correspond  with  the  gradual  mnemonic 
revival  of  the  typal  form,  and  they  reciprocally 
stimulate  and  react  on  each  other.  For  while  a  fold, 
shadow,  or  line  of  the  objects  seen  appear  to  corre- 
spond with  some  feature  of  the  mnemonic  type,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  fold,  shadow,  or  outline  of  the 
object  recalls  a  feature  of  the  inward  phantasm  com- 
posed by  the  memory. 

In  this  process  the  mnemonic  details  which  are 
in  accordance  with  the  pre-existing  type,  and  some- 
times also  in  accordance  with  some  remarkable  face 
or  person  which  was  the  first  to  present  itself  to  the 
mind,  serve  as  a  model  for  the  accidental  form  of  the 
external  object  or  objects  which  correspond  to  it; 
this  in  its  turn  recalls  features  which  remain  in  the 
memory,  and  in  this  way  the  external  form  of  this 
particular  phantasm  is  gradually  chiselled  into  full 
relief.  The  more  intently  we  regard  the  object  which 
is  modified  to  suit  the  mental  image,  the  more  per- 


278  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

fectly  they  agree  together,  and  the  apparition  stands 
out  with  more  vivid  distinctness.  This  will  be  the 
experience  of  every  one  to  whom  such  a  phenomenon 
appears,  and  a  dispassionate  analysis  of  all  the  phases 
of  this  fact  must  fully  confirm  our  theory. 

Such  a  fact,  which  is  implicitly  included  in  the 
general  law  we  have  laid  down  for  the  origin  of  myfch, 
will  also  as  I  think  throw  further  light  on  the  origin 
of  many  hallucinations,  both  in  normal  conditions  of 
mind  and  in  the  abnormal  state  of  nervous  disorders. 
The  different  appearances  of  objects,  animals,  and 
men,  the  voices,  words,  songs,  and  conversations 
seen  and  heard  in  these  hallucinations,  are  produced, 
by  an  internal  impulse  as  well  as  by  a  stimulus 
from  without ;  they  are  internal  in  the  images  and 
sensation  already  unconsciously  impressed  upon  the 
memory,  and  they  are  external  in  the  accidentally 
modified  form  in  which  they  occur  in  sensible  objects, 
so  that  they  act  reciprocally  as  an  incentive  and 
impulse  to  each  other. 

If  in  normal  hallucinations  the  vividness  of  the 
internal  image  is  in  certain  physiological  conditions 
projected  outwardly,  the  configuration  and  accidental 
form  of  the  external  objects  contribute  to  complete 
the  composition  in  accordance  with  the  nature  and 
design  of  this  internal  image.  Sometimes  the 
physiological  conditions  of  hallucination  are  so  power- 
ful that  it  is  at  once  produced  by  the  appearance  of 
an  object  which  has  some  analogy  with  the  mental 


DKEAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  279 

image.     Whatever  may  be  the  genesis  and  primitive 
character  of  the  idea  of  space,  and  its  psychical  and 
physiological  relations  to   actual   space — a  question 
which  has  been  the  theme  of  so  much  discussion  in 
our  time — it    is    certain  that  first   habit   and   then 
hereditary  influence  cause  us  to   have  the  sensation 
and  apprehension  of  a  psychical  space,  which  may 
be  termed  artificial  and  congenital,  and  upon  which 
the  various    impressions   of    the    senses    are    spon- 
taneously projected.     Of    this    there  is    an    evident 
proof  in  the  fact  that  if  we  look  at  the  sun  or  any 
bright  object,  such  as  the  windows  of  a  room  in  the 
day  time,  and  then  close  our  eyes,  so  as  to  make  the 
vision   of  external   space   impossible,   the   image   of 
the  sun,  sometimes  of  a  different  colour,  or  of  the 
window,  is  projected  into  the  darkness  at  some  distance 
from  us,  and  moves  about  this  psychical  space.     This 
phemonenon  also  occurs  in  the  subjective  sensations 
of  hearing,  since  the  sounds  do  not  appear  to  be  close 
to  the  ear,  but  at  a  distance.     We  are  not  here  called 
upon    to    discuss    the    causes   which    generate    the 
appearance  of  this  psychical  space,  but  the  fact  is 
indisputable ;  so  that  conversely  it  becomes  intelligible 
how  the  internal  image  may  be  projected  in  the  same 
way,  or  may  at  least  appear  to  be  externally  projected 
in  hallucinations.     This   surprising  phenomenon    is 
only  a  modification  of  the  ordinary  exercise  of  the 
psychical  and  physiological  faculties  in  the  projection 
of  images  ;  of  which,  after  the  idea  of  space  has  been 
13 


280  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

formed  by  primitive  experience,  habit  and  education 
are  the  chief  factors. 

Hallucinations,  in  the  cases  observed  above,  are 
due  to  an  external  impulse  ;  and  this  is  especially  the 
case  in  madness  and  other  nervous  disorders  ;  since  a 
critical  observation  and  clear  discernment  of  things  is 
wanting,  some  object  of  vision,  a  voice,  phrases,  or 
sounds  are  much  more  apt  to  act  as  a  stimulus  to  a 
vast  field  of  visual  hallucinations,  or  to  a  long  succes- 
sion of  sentences  and  speeches.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
wonderful  that  in  an  ecstasy,  for  instance,  in  which 
all  the  faculties  are  concentrated  on  very  few  ideas 
and  images,  or  perhaps  on  one  only,  every  external 
sign,  whether  obvious  to  sight  or  hearing,  com- 
bined with  the  mnemonic  effort  already  explained, 
is  modified  to  correspond  with  these  vivid  and 
exalted  images;  thus  constituting  the  wonderful 
phenomenon  of  ecstasy.  In  such  a  case  the  ecstatic 
phenomenon  in  persons  subject  to  these  nervous 
affections  is  often  invested  with  fresh  wonders  by  the 
additional  sensations  of  light  and  subjective  colours ; 
this  is  not  uncommon  even  in  persons  of  a  sane  mind 
and  body,  but  undoubtedly  it  is  more  frequently  the 
case  in  those  whose  mental  and  physical  conditions 
are  abnormal.  It  is  not  rare  to  hear  an  ecstatic 
person  recount  divine  visions,  suffused  with  extra- 
ordinary light  and  glory. 

In  order  to  contribute  to  the  researches  of  others 
into  the  nature  of  this  phenomenon,  I  must  be 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  281 

permitted — not  from  vanity,  but  from  a  desire  that 
my  own  imperfections  may  serve  the  cause  of  science 
however  slightly — to  relate  some  facts,  personal  to 
myself,  which  bear  upon  the  question,  facts  of  very 
general  experience.  From  my  childhood  I  have  had, 
both  by  day  and  night,  various  subjective  sensations 
of  light  which  I  was,  as  a  person  of  perfectly  sane 
mind,  able  to  observe  dispassionately.  After  read- 
ing for  a  long  while,  or  when  fatigued  by  sleepless- 
ness, mental  excitement,  or  some  temporary  gastric 
derangement,  I  see  clear  flames  circling  before 
my  eyes.  These  are  in  a  small,  oblong  form, 
arranged  at  brief  intervals  in  concentric  curves,  and 
composing  a  moving  garland  projected  upon  space, 
tinged  with  a-  yellowish  light,  shading  into  vivid  blue. 
Sometimes  this  figure  is  changed  for  stars,  twinkling 
in  a  vast  and  remote  space,  as  in  a  firmament.  In 
addition  to  this  phenomenon,  I  have  about  twenty 
times  in  the  course  of  my  life  experienced  other 
subjective  and  more  extraordinary  sensations  of  light, 
not  unknown  to  others.  This  phenomenon  occurs 
when  I  am  in  a  normal  condition  of  health,  and 
always  begins  with  a  confusion  of  sight,  so  that  I  am 
unable  to  see  objects  and  the  faces  of  people  dis- 
tinctly; after  which  everything  within  the  range  of 
vision  becomes  mobile  and  tremulous.  This  state 
continues  for  ten  minutes,  and  then  clear  and  distinct 
vision  returns.  Next  a  lucid  circle,  zig-zagged  in 
acute  angles,  appears  close  to  the  eyes,  now  on  the 


282  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

right,  now  on  the  left.  It  moves  in  a  somewhat 
serpentine  course,  and  is  broken  in  the  centre  of 
the  lower  half.  It  withdraws  from  the  eye  into 
subjective  space,  and  the  shining  band  of  which 
it  is  composed  gradually  loses  its  sharp  angles,  and 
becomes  wider  and  undulated,  while  still  in  motion. 

Another  remarkable  sensation  follows.  The  shin- 
ing band,  which  has  dilated  until  it  is  withdrawn 
from  the  eyes,  whether  closed  or  open,  to  an  apparent 
distance  of  several  yards,  becomes  tinted  with  all 
the  colours  of  the  rainbow,  standing  out  in  such 
vivid  splendour  on  the  dark  background  that  I  have 
never  seen  them  equalled  in  nature.  Indeed  the 
beauty  of  this  phenomena  is  amazing.  The  band, 
inlaid  with  various  colours,  now  occupies  the  whole 
space,  maintaining  an  equal  distance  from  the  closed 
eyes,  and  moving  continually  with  a  rhythmic  undu- 
lation, while  it  constantly  becomes  more  vivid.  The 
moving  circle  continues  to  dilate  until  it  slowly  fades, 
and  at  last  completely  disappears.  From  its  begin- 
ning to  the  end,  the  vision  occupies  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  minutes. 

Throughout  the  phenomenon  I  continue  to  be  per- 
fectly collected  and  free  in  mind,  so  that  I  can  observe 
it  in  all  its  details  with  perfect  calmness,  and  can  also 
impart  my  observations  to  the  persons  with  whom  I 
happen  to  be.  Only  when  the  subjective  sensation 
has  ceased,  I  feel  an  obscure  pain  in  the  brow  of  the 
eye  in  which  the  phenomenon  occurred.  This  is 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  283 

readily  explained  by  the  well-known  interlacing  of  the 
nerves,  and  the  action  of  the  hemispheres. 

Supposing  that  such  phenomena  occur,  as  they  more 
readily  do,  in  persons  predisposed  to  nervous  affec- 
tions, although  not  insane,  in  times  and  in  a  society 
agitated  by  religious  excitement,  or  in  persons  habitu- 
ally contemplative  and  occupied  with  spiritual  images 
and  thoughts ;  if  in  moments  of  ecstatic  emotion  they 
should  perceive,  in  addition  to  the  images  proper  to 
such  conditions,  these  circling  flames,  which  is  very 
likely  to  be  the  case,  or  the  iridescent  aureole  we  have 
described,  they  would  certainly  accept  and  glorify 
the  heavenly  vision  revealed  to  them.  The  revolution 
of  the  bright  stars  or  iridescent  band,  preceded  by  the 
obscurity  of  vision  which  accompanies  the  ordinary 
>  ecstatic  hallucination,  would  certainly  be  ascribed  to 
the  saints  or  angels,  and  would  thus  become  more 
supernatural  and  consonant  with  the  believer's  idea 
of  heaven ;  and  these  very  subjective  sensations  might 
often  produce  the  ecstatic  vision,  so  ready  to  appear 
in  the  morbid  conditions  which  lead  to  hallucination. 

According  to  the  process  previously  described,  by 
which  the  phenomenon  of  natural  hallucinations  is 
produced  by  an  external  stimulus,  these  luminous 
phenomena  would  revive  the  memory  of  angelic  and 
saintly  forms,  of  which  men  were  so  profoundly  con- 
scious in  times  of  religious  excitement,  and  would  be 
regarded  as  their  external  signs,  while  they  would  at 
the  same  time  stimulate  the  appearance  of  such 


284  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

angelic  visions.  Ultimately  this  would  lead  to  the 
vast  drama  of  celestial  hallucinations  described  for 
us  in  the  accounts  of  many  ecstatic  visions.  They  do 
not  only  occur  in  modern  religions,  but  in  those  of  the 
old  heathen,  and  in  the  rude  and  unformed  beliefs  of 
savages.  The  ethnography  of  the  most  savage  peoples 
of  our  time  teaches  us  that  the  origin  of  very  many 
myths  is  to  be  found  in  normal  and  abnormal  hallu- 
cinations, and  in  the  luminous  visions  which  conform 
to  their  mental  conditions.  Persons  subject  to  ner- 
vous affections,  from  simple  epilepsy  to  madness  and 
idiocy,  were  and  still  are  supposed  to  be  inspired,  and 
endowed  with  the  power  of  prophesying  and  working 
miracles ;  they  are  also  venerated  for  relating  the 
strange  visions  presented  to  them  in  the  crisis  of  their 
disorder.  Africa,  barbarous  Asia,  America,  Oceania, 
and  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  people  in  Europe 
itself,  abound  with  such  facts  ;  they  have  occurred 
and  are  likely  to  recur  in  civilized  peoples  of  all  times, 
including  our  own,  as  we  know  only  too  well. 

We  have  thus  reduced  the  primitive  origin  of  myth, 
of  dreams,  of  all  illusions,  of  normal  and  abnormal 
hallucinations,  to  one  unique  fact  and  genesis,  to  a 
fundamental  principle ;  that  is,  to  the  primitive  and 
innate  entification  of  the  phenomenon,  to  whatever 
sensation  it  may  be  referred.  This  fact  is  not  exclu- 
sively human  in  its  simple  expression  and  genesis, 
since  it  occurs  in  the  lower  animals ;  evidently  in 
those  which  are  nearest  to  man,  and  by  the  necessary 


DKEAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  285 

logic  of  induction  in  all  others,  according  to  their 
sensations  and  modes  of  perception.  In  the  vast 
historic  drama  of  opinions,  beliefs,  religions,  mythical 
and  mytho-scientific  theories  which  are  developed  in 
all  peoples;  and  again,  in  the  infinite  variety  of 
dreams,  illusions,  mystic  and  nervous  hallucinations, 
all  depend  on  the  primitive  and  unique  fact  which  is 
also  common  to  the  animal  kingdom,  and  identical 
with  it ;  in  man  this  is  also  the  condition  of  science 
and  knowledge.  I  think  that  this  conclusion  is  not 
unworthy  of  the  consideration  of  wise  men  and  honest 
critics,  and  that  it  will  contribute  to  establish  the 
definitive  unity  of  the  general  science  of  psychology, 
considered  in  the  vast  animal  kingdom  as  a  whole, 
and  in  connection  with  the  great  theory  of  evolution. 
This  primitive  act  of  perception,  the  radical  cause 
and  genesis  of  all  mythical  representations,  and  the 
physical  and  intellectual  condition  of  science  itself,  is 
also  one  of  the  factors  and  the  aesthetic  germ  of  all 
the  arts.  The  constraining  power  which  generates 
the  intentional  subjectivity  of  the  phenomenon,  and 
the  entification  of  images,  ideas,  and  numerous 
normal  and  abnormal  appearances,  also  unconsciously 
impels  man  to  project  the  image  into  a  design,  a  sculp- 
ture, or  a  monument.  Since  an  idea  or  emotion 
naturally  tends,  as  we  have  seen,  to  take  an  external 
form  in  speech,  gesture,  or  some  other  outward  fact ; 
so  also  it  tends  to  manifest  itself  materially  and  by 
means  of  various  arts,  and  to  take  the  permanent 


286  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

form  of  some  object.  It  is  embodied  in  this  way,  as 
it  was  embodied  in  fetishes  in  the  way  described  in 
the  foregoing  chapters.  Owing  to  this  innate  cause, 
and  by  the  instinct  of  imitation  which  results  from  it, 
children  as  well  as  savages  always  attempt  some  rude 
sketch  of  natural  objects,  or  of  the  fanciful  images  to 
which  they  have  given  rise.  Drawings  of  animals 
and  some  other  objects  are  found  among  the  lowest 
savages,  such  as  the  Tasmanians  and  Australians. 
Nor  is  this  fact  peculiar  to  the  lower  historic  races, 
and  to  those  which  are  still  in  existence,  but  it  is  also 
to  be  found  in  the  dwellings  and  remains  of  prehistoric 
man ;  carvings  on  stone  of  very  ancient  date  hava 
been  found,  coeval  with  extinct  and  fossil  animals, 
prior  to  the  age  of  our  flora  and  fauna  and  to  the 
present  conformation  of  land  and  water.  There  are 
many  clear  proofs  of  the  extreme  antiquity  of  the 
primitive  impulse  to  imitative  arts.  A  stag's  meta- 
tarsal  bone,  on  which  there  was  a  carving  of  two 
ruminants,  was  found  in  the  cave  of  Savigny :  in  a 
cave  at  Eyzies  there  was  a  fragmentary  carving  of  two 
animals  on  two  slabs  of  schist ;  at  La  Madelaine  there 
were  found  two  so-called  staves  of  office,  on  which 
were  representations  of  a  horse,  of  reindeer,  cattle, 
and  other  animals ;  two  outlines  of  men,  one  of  a 
fore-arm,  and  one  of  a  naked  man  in  a  stooping  posi- 
tion, with  a  short  staff  on  his  shoulder  ;  there  is  also 
the  outline  of  a  mammoth  on  a  sheet  of  ivcry;  a 
statuette  of  a  thin  woman  without  arms,  found  by 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  287 

M.  Vibraye  at  Laugerie-Basse,  and  known  by  the 
name  of  the  immodest  Venus ;  a  drawing  represent- 
ing a  man,  or  so-called  hunter,  armed  with  a  bow,  and 
pursuing  a  male  auroch,  going  with  its  head  down 
and  of  a  fierce  aspect ;  the  man  is  perfectly  naked, 
and  wears  a  pointed  beard.  Other  designs  of  the 
chase  and  of  animals  afford  a  clear  proof  of  the  remote 
period  at  which  the  primitive  instinct  towards  the 
imitative  arts  existed. 

It  is  peculiar  to  man  to  portray  things  and  animals, 
and  to  erect  monuments  out  of  a  superstitious  feeling, 
or  to  glorify  an  individual  or  the  nation ;  the  bower- 
birds  and  some  cognate  species  may  perhaps  be 
regarded  as  an  exception,  since  they  show  a  certain 
sense  of  beauty,  and  an  extrinsic  satisfaction  in  gay 
colours,  which  indeed  appears  in  many  animals.  But 
art  in  the  true  sense  and  in  its  essential  principle 
are  the  act  and  product  of  man  alone,  of  which  I 
have  demonstrated  the  cause  and  comparative  reasons 
in  another  work,  so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat 
them  here.  Some  rare  cases  indicate  an  artistic 
construction  which  is  not  an  essential  part  of  animal 
functions,  and  the  sense  of  form  and  colour  occurs 
in  some  species.  But  this  only  shows  that  there  exist 
in  the  animal  kingdom  the  roots  of  every  art  and 
sentiment  peculiar  to  man,  subsequently  perfected  by 
him  in  an  exclusive  and  reflex  manner,  and  this  con- 
firms the  general  truths  of  heredity  and  evolution. 

When  primitive  man  draws  or  carves  objects,  he 


288  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

does  not  merely  obey  the  innate  impulse  to  give  an 
external  form  to  the  image  already  in  his  mind,  but 
while  satisfying  the  aesthetic  sentiment  which  actuates 
him,  he  is  conscious  of  some  mysterious  power  and 
superstitious  influence.  This  sentiment  is  not  only 
apparent  in  our  own  children,  but  among  nearly  all 
savages,  of  which  many  instances  might  be  given; 
8  >rne  of  them  are  even  afraid  to  look  at  a  portrait, 
and  shrink  from  it  as  from  a  living  person. 

As  time  went  on,  a  belief  in  spirits  was  developed 
from  causes  already  mentioned,  the  rude  theory  of 
incarnation  followed  as  its  corollary,  and  this  senti- 
ment was  naturally  confirmed  by  incised  and  sculp- 
tured images ;  for  since  they  supposed  a  spirit  to  be 
present  in  every  object  whatever,  this  was  much 
more  the  case  with  incised  or  sculptured  figures  of  men 
and  animals.  In  these  figures  the  amulet,  talisman, 
or  gris-gris  of  savages  especially  consisted ;  portraits, 
however  rude,  of  animals,  monsters,  of  the  human 
form  as  a  whole  or  in  parts,  as  in  the  universal 
phallic  superstitions.  The  belief  in  spirits,  resulting 
from  the  personification  of  shadows,  or  of  the  image 
of  a  man's  own  soul  which  was  supposed  to  return 
from  the  tomb,  had  a  mythical  influence  on  the  mode 
and  ceremonies  of  sepulture,  on  the  position  of  corpses, 
on  the  orientation  of  tombs,  and  their  form.  In  fact, 
the  mythical  ideas  of  spirits,  and  the  fanciful  place 
they  took  in  the  primitive  idea  of  the  world,  produced 
the  custom  of  burying  corpses  in  an  upright,  stooping, 


DEEAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  289 

or  sitting  position,  and  their  situation  with  reference 
to  the  four  cardinal  points.  In  America  the  cross 
which  was  placed  in  very  early  times  ahove  the  tombs 
is  rightly  supposed  by  Brinton  to  have  been  a  symbol 
of  the  four  zones  of  the  earth,  relatively  to  the  tomb 
itself  and  to  the  human  remains  enclosed  in  it. 
One  Australian  tribe  buries  its  dead  with  their  faces 
to  the  east ;  the  Fijians  are  buried  with  the  head 
and  feet  to  the  west,  and  many  of  the  North  American 
Indians  follow  the  same  custom.  Others  in  South 
America  double  up  the  corpse,  turning  the  face  to 
the  east.  The  Peruvians  place  their  mummies  in 
a  sitting  position,  looking  to  the  west ;  the  natives 
of  Jesso  also  turn  the  head  to  the  west.  The  modern 
Siamese  never  sleep  with  their  faces  turned  to  the 
west,  because  this  is  the  attitude  in  which  they  place 
their  dead  before  burning  them  on  the  funeral  pile. 
Finally,  the  Greeks  and  all  other  peoples,  both  civi- 
lized and  barbarous,  including  ourselves,  had  and 
continue  to  have  special  customs  in  burying  their  dead. 
All  the  primitive  artistic  representations  of  the 
human  form,  the  orientation  of  tombs  and  temples 
and  their  peculiar  form,  were  prompted  by  these 
spiritualist  and  superstitious  ideas ;  they  expressed  a 
symbolism  derived  from  mythical  ideas  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  world,  of  its  organism,  elements,  and 
cosmic  legends.  This  assertion  might  be  verified  by 
all  funereal,  religious,  and  civil  monuments  among  all 
peoples  of  the  earth,  in  their  most  rudimentary  form 


290  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

down  to  those  of  our  times,  and  above  all  in  India, 
China,  Central  Asia,  in  Africa,  and  particularly  in 
Egypt,  in  America,  in  Europe,  beginning  with  the 
Greeks  and  passing  through  the  Latins  down  to 
the  Christianity  of  our  day ;  nor  need  we  exclude 
the  Oceanic  races,  and  those  of  the  two  frigid  zones. 

Doubtless  the  purest  aesthetic  sentiment  was  grati- 
fied in  the  productions  of  the  plastic  arts  and  of  design 
in  general  when  civilization  was  at  its  highest  perfec- 
tion, among  people  peculiarly  alive  to  this  sentiment. 
At  the  same  time,  for  the  great  majority  of  peoples 
in  early  and  subsequent  ages  down  to  our  own  time, 
there  was  and  is  the  consciousness  of  a  numen,  in  the 
proper  meaning  of  the  word,  within  the  statue  or  effigy, 
and  these  were  unconsciously  entified  by  the  same  law 
which  leads  to  the  entification  of  natural  phenomena ; 
the  august  presence  of  the  gods  and  an  artificial 
symbol  of  the  living  organism  of  the  world  were 
contained  in  the  material  form.  While  this  sentiment 
took  a  higher  development  in  art,  and  was  gradually 
emancipated  from  its  mythical  bonds,  it  never  alto- 
gether disappeared  in  artistic  creations  ;  and  there 
are  still  many  who  would,  like  some  uncultured 
peoples  of  early  and  modern  times,  cover  up  their 
images  when  they  are  about  to  commit  some  action 
which  might  be  displeasing  to  these  idols  of  the  gods 
or  saints.  If  we  were  to  gauge  the  sentiments  which 
really  animate  a  man  of  the  people,  even  when  he 
looks  at  the  statue  of  a  great  man,  we  should  find 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  291 

that  in  addition  to  his  aesthetic  satisfaction,  he  un- 
consciously imagines  that  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man 
is  infused  into  the  image  and  is  able  to  enjoy  the 
admiration  of  the  observers. 

The  worship  of  images  in  all  times  and  places 
is  essentially  founded  on  this  belief  in  the  incar- 
nation of  spirits  and  the  numen  of  fetishes.  There 
is  indeed  no  real  difference  between  the  superstitious 
adoration  of  a  savage,  addressed  to  his  fetish,  and 
the  worship  of  images  in  many  religions  of  modern 
civilization.  Although  people  of  culture,  and  the 
scholastic  theory  of  religions,  may  distinguish  indirect 
and  respectful  veneration  from  direct  worship,  yet  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  majority  of  the  faithful 
directly  adore  the  image.  The  general  belief  in  relics, 
consisting  of  bones,  hair,  clothes,  etc.,  is  plainly  an 
evolution  of  the  amulets  and  gris-gris  of  savages. 
This  fetishtic  and  idolatrous  sentiment  has  by  a 
gradual  and  necessary  development  been  infused  even 
into  speech  and  writing,  for  written  forms  have  been 
hung  on  plants  as  fetishes  and  idols,  or  placed  in  the 
temples  as  the  symbol  of  perpetual  prayer,  and  the 
Buddhists  even  erect  prayer-mills.  We  have  analogous 
instances  among  ourselves,  when  texts  of  Scripture  or 
the  words  of  some  saint  are  rolled  up  into  a  kind  of 
amulet  and  worn  round  the  neck.  The  same  sentiment 
is  shown  in  the  costly  offering  of  lamps  kept  constantly 
burning  before  images  as  the  means  of  obtaining  help 
and  favour ;  and  in  the  visits  made  to  a  given  number 


292  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  churches,  thus  transforming  number  into  a  mys- 
terious, entified,  and  efficacious  power,  in  the  same 
way  that  every  ancient  people,  whether  barbarous 
or  civilized,  mythically  venerated  certain  numbers; 
the  Peruvians,  for  instance,  and  some  other  American 
peoples  regarded  the  number  "  four"  as  sacred. 

In  addition  to  the  cherished  remembrance  always 
inspired  by  portraits  of  those  we  love,  a  breathing 
of  life,  as  if  the  dead  or  absent  person  were  com- 
municating with  us  in  spirit,  is  perhaps  unconsciously 
infused  into  the  picture  while  we  look  at  it.  These 
are  transient  states  of  consciousness,  of  which  we  are 
scarcely  aware,  although  they  do  not  escape  the 
notice  of  careful  observers.  Any  dishonour  or  insult 
offered  to  images,  whether  sacred  or  profane,  deeply 
moves  both  the  learned  and  unlearned,  both  bar- 
barous and  civilized  peoples,  not  merely  as  a  base 
and  sacrilegious  act  against  the  person  represented, 
but  from  an  instinctive  and  spontaneous  feeling  that 
he  is  actually  present  in  the  image.  Any  one  who 
analyzes  the  matter  will  find  it  impossible  to  separate 
these  two  sentiments,  and  many  disgraceful  and 
sanguinary  scenes  which  have  led  to  the  gallows  or 
the  stake  have  actually  resulted  from  the  identifica- 
tion of  the  image  with  the  thing  represented. 

Even  when  a  man  of  high  culture  and  refined 
taste  for  beauty  stands  before  the  canvas  or  sculpture 
of  some  great  ancient  or  modern  artist,  his  spiritual 
and  aesthetic  enjoyment  of  these  wonderful  works  is, 


DREAMS   AND   ILLUSIONS.  293 

as  he  will  find  from  the  observation  of  his  inmost 
emotions,  combined  with  the  animation  and  per- 
sonification of  what  he  sees  ;  he  is  so  far  carried 
away  by  the  beauty  and  truth  of  the  representation 
that  the  passions  represented  affect  him  as  if  they 
were  those  of  real  persons.  This  relative  perfection 
of  a  work  of  art,  either  in  the  way  the  objects  stand 
out,  in  the  varied  diffusion  of  light  and  shade,  in 
the  movement  and  expression  of  figures,  in  the 
effect  of  the  whole  in  its  details  and  background, 
is  all  heightened  and  confirmed  by  the  underlying 
entification  of  images.  The  process  we  have  before 
described  by  which  a  confused  group  of  objects  appear 
to  us  as  a  human  form  or  phantasm  is  also  effected 
in  this  case  in  a  more  subtle  way  and  with  less  effort 
of  memory ;  it  is  all  ultimately  due  to  the  primitive 
fact  of  animal  perception.  Our  imagination  can 
supply  the  resemblance,  the  limbs,  colour,  and  design 
in  a  picture  in  which  a  face,  figure,  or  landscape  are 
slightly  sketched,  or  in  a  roughly  chiselled  statue. 
We  often  hear  the  complaint  that  a  work  of  art  is 
too  highly  finished,  and  it  wearies  and  displeases  us 
because  it  leaves  nothing  for  the  imagination  to  supply. 
The  remark  reveals  the  fact,  of  which  we  are  all 
implicitly  conscious,  that  we  are  ourselves  in  part 
the  artificers  of  every  external  phenomenon. 

We  need  not  stop  to  prove  a  truth  well-known  to 
all,  that  architecture  and  all  kinds  of  monuments 
lend  themselves  to  a  symbolism  derived  from  ancient 


294  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

and  primitive  popular  ideas.  This  was  the  case  in 
India,  Mesopotamia,  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Judaea,  Greece, 
Ancient  and  Christian  Rome,  and  in  the  ancient 
remains  found  in  savage  countries  and  in  America. 
The  freemasons  of  the  Middle  Ages  united  the 
earliest  and  most  varied  traditions  with  the  symbols 
of  Christianity.  We  unconsciously  carry  on  the 
same  traditions,  preserving  some  of  their  forms, 
although  the  meaning  of  the  symbol  is  lost.  Tombs 
in  the  open  air  which  enclosed  a  spirit,  and  round 
which  the  shades  roamed,  were  the  first  sacred 
buildings,  from  which  by  an  easy  and  intelligible 
evolution  of  ideas,  temples,  with  a  similar  orientation, 
and  other  works  of  architecture,  both  religious  and 
civil,  were  derived.  If  we  follow,  step  by  step,  the 
development  of  the  tomb  into  the  temple,  the  palace, 
and  the  triumphal  arch,  we  shall  see  how  the  out- 
ward form  and  the  human  and  cosmic  myth  were 
reciprocally  enlarged.  Ethnography,  archaeology,  and 
the  history  of  all  peoples  indicate  their  gradual 
evolution,  so  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  allude  to  it ; 
proofs  abound  for  any  intelligent  reader.  Even  in 
modern  architecture  the  arrangement  of  parts,  the 
general  form,  the  ornaments  and  symbols  relating  to 
mythical  ideas,  still  persist,  although  we  are  no  longer 
conscious  of  their  meaning ;  just  as  human  speech 
now  makes  use  of  a  simple  phonetic  sign  as  if  it  were 
an  algebraic  notation,  in  which  the  philologist  can 
trace  the  primitive  and  concrete  image  whence  it 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  295 

proceeded.  The  arts  also,  like  other  human  products, 
follow  the  general  evolution  of  myth  in  their  historic 
course ;  the  primitive  fetish  is  afterwards  perfected  by 
more  explicit  spiritual  beliefs,  and  is  combined  with 
cosmic  myths ;  these  are  slowly  transformed  into 
symbolic  representations,  which  dissolve  in  their 
turn,  and  give  place  to  the  expression  of  the  truth 
and  to  forms  which  more  fully  satisfy  the  natural 
sense  of  beauty  and  its  adaptation  to  special  ends. 

The  arts  of  singing  and  of  instrumental  music 
have  the  same  origin  and  evolution  as  the  others. 
Vico,  Strabo,  and  others  have  asserted  that  primitive 
men  spoke  in  song,  and  there  is  great  truth  in  the 
remark.  Since  gesture  and  pantomime  help  out  the 
meaning  of  imperfect  speech,  which  was  at  first  poor 
in  the  number  of  words  and  their  relative  forms,  and 
this  is  still  the  case  among  many  peoples,  so  song, 
vocal  modulation,  and  the  rhythmic  expression  of 
speech  seem  to  stimulate  emotion.  In  truth,  the 
mental  and  physiological  effort  which  tends  by  vocal 
enunciation  to  present  the  image  or  emotion  in  an 
external  form,  is  on  the  one  hand  not  yet  fully 
disintegrated,  and  on  the  other  the  greater  or  less 
intensity  of  feeling  involved  in  primitive  languages  a 
corresponding  vocal  modulation  to  supplement  it,  just 
as  it  required  gesture  and  pantomime.  Thus  speech, 
gesture,  and  song,  in  the  larger  sense  of  the  word,  had 
their  origin  together.  This  is  also  true  of  many  of 
the  languages  of  modern  savages,  and  of  those  of 


296  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

more  civilized  peoples,  such  as  the  Chinese,  which 
have  not  quite  attained  inflection  ;  in  this  case  the 
frequent  repetition  of  the  same  monosyllable  conveys 
a  different  meaning,  not  only  from  its  relative  posi- 
tion, but  from  the  modulation  and  tone  in  which  it  is 
uttered.  The  same  thing  may  be  observed  in  children 
who  are  just  beginning  to  talk. 

Rhythm,  or  the  graduated  and  alternate  action  and 
reaction  with  which  a  vibration  begins  and  ends,  is  a 
universal  law  in  the  manifestation  and  movements  of 
all  natural  phenomena ;  a  law  which  is  revealed  on 
a  grand  scale  in  all  the  recurring  periods  of  nature, 
whether  astral,  telluric,  or  meteorological,  as  well  as 
in  the  form  and  manifold  phases  of  organisms  and 
their  modes  of  reproduction.  This  universal  law  also 
applies  to  the  whole  mental  and  organic  system  of 
animals  and  men,  whenever  they  become  conscious  of 
their  own  existence.  The  same  universal  rhythm 
constitutes  the  fundamental  form  of  sound  in  the 
vibration  of  metallic  bars,  or  of  strings,  and  becomes 
perceptible  to  the  external  senses  by  means  of  our 
organ  of  hearing,  as  also  by  the  external  and  innate 
necessity  slowly  developed  by  our  habits  of  conscious- 
ness, which  may  be  termed  the  external  causes  of  its 
organic  evolution  and  constitution. 

By  these  organic  and  cosmic  tendencies,  and  by 
the  intrinsic  impulse  towards  modulation  of  sound 
already  explained,  speech  first  issued  from  the  human 
breast  in  harmonious  accents  and  rhythmic  form,  and 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  297 

these  became  in  their  turn  the  causes  and  genesis  of 
versification  and  metre.  The  classic  experiments  of 
Helmholtz  show  that  each  note  may  be  regarded  as  a 
harmonic  whole,  owing  to  the  complementary  sounds 
which  accompany  it  in  its  complete  development. 
With  reference  to  our  own  race,  the  genesis  of  the 
composition  of  verse  and  metre  are  shown  by  the 
researches  made  by  Westphal  and  others  into  the 
metrical  system  of  the  Vedic  Aryans,  the  Turanians, 
and  the  Greeks,  since  the  fact  that  their  metres  were 
the  same  implies  a  common  origin.  The  demonstra- 
tion is  complete,  if  we  compare  the  iambic  metre  of 
Archilochus  with  that  of  the  Vedic  hymns.  There 
are  in  both  three  series  of  iambuses — the  dimeter,  the 
cataleptic  trimeter,  and  the  acataleptic.* 

*  While  these  sheets  were  passing  through  the  press,  I  was  in- 
formed of  Berg's  work  on  the  Enjoyment  of  Music.  ("  Die  Lust  an  der 
Musilt."  Berlin,  1879.)  Berg,  who  is  a  realist,  inquires  what  is  the 
source  of  the  pleasure  we  experience  from  the  regular  succession  of 
sounds,  which  he  holds  to  be  the  primary  essence  of  music.  He  finds 
the  cause  in  some  of  Darwin's  theories  and  researches.  Darwin 
observes  that  the  epoch  of  song  coincides  with  that  of  love  in  the  case 
of  singing  animals,  birds,  insects,  and  some  mammals ;  and  from  this 
Berg  concludes  that  primitive  men,  or  rather  anthropoids,  made  use 
of  the  voice  to  attract  the  attention  of  females.  Hence  a  relation  was 
established  between  singing  and  the  sentiments  of  love,  rivalry,  and 
pleasure ;  this  relation  was  indissolubly  fused  into  the  nature  by  here- 
dity, and  it  persisted  even  after  singing  ceased  to  be  excited  by  its 
primitive  cause.  This  applies  to  the  general  sense  of  pleasure  in 
musis.  We  have  next  to  inquire  why  the  ear  prefers  certain  sounds 
to  others,  certain  combinations  to  others,  etc.  Berg  holds  that  it 
depends  on  negative  causes,  that  the  ear  does  not  select  the  most 
pleasing  but  the  least  painful  sounds.  He  relies  on  Helmholtz's 
fundamental  theory  of  Bounds.  It  seems  to  me  that  although  Helm- 
holta's  theory  is  true,  that  of  Berg  is  erroneous,  since  he  is  quite 


298  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

This  observation  applies  to  the  physical  and 
physiological  conditions  of  the  phenomenon,  since 
primitive  men  could  not  speak  without  rhythmic 
modulation  of  words.  We  are  not  quite  without  hope 
of  discovering  by  induction  the  origin  of  wind '  or 

unable  to  prove  his  assertion  that  the  effect  produced  by  music  is  a 
negative  pleasure.  Moreover,  the  Darwinian  observations  to  which 
he  traces  the  origin  of  the  enjoyment  of  music,  not  only  rely  on  an 
arbitrary  hypothesis,  but  do  not  explain  why  males  should  derive  any 
advantage  from  their  voice,  nor  what  pleasure  and  satisfaction  females 
find  in  it.  And  this,  as  Heinach  justly  observes  in  the  Revue  Philo- 
soplnque.  is  the  point  on  which  the  problem  turns. 

Clark  has  recently  suggested  in  the  American  Naturalist  another 
theory  worthy  of  consideration.  A  musical  sound  is  never  simple  but 
complex ;  it  consists  of  one  fundamental  sound,  and  of  other  harmonic 
sounds  at  close  intervals  ;  the  first  and  most  perceptible  intervals  are 
the  8th,  5th,  4th,  and  3rd  major.  Each  of  the  simple  sounds  which, 
taken  together,  constitute  the  whole  sound,  causes  the  vibration  of  a 
special  group  of  fibres  in  the  auditory  nerve.  This  fact,  often  repeated, 
generates  a  kind  of -organic  predisposition  which  is  confirmed  by 
heredity.  If  from  any  cause  one  of  these  groups  is  set  in  motion,  the 
other  groups  will  have  a  tendency  to  vibrate.  Therefore,  if  a  singing 
animal,  weary  of  always  repeating  the  same  note,  wishes  to  vary  its 
height,  he  will  naturally  choose  one  of  the  harmonic  sounds  of  the 
first.  The  ultimate  origin  of  the  law  of  melody  in  organized  beings  is 
therefore  only  the  simultaneous  harmony,  realized  in  sounds,  of  in- 
organic nature.  This  theory  is  confirmed  by  the  analysis  which  has 
been  often  made  of  the  song  of  some  birds :  the  intervals  employed 
by  these  are  generally  the  same  as  those  on  which  human  melody  is 
founded,  the  8th,  oth,  4th,  and  3rd  major.  Reinach,  however,  observes 
that  Beethoven,  who  in  his  Pastoral  Symphony  has  reproduced  the 
song  of  the  nightingale,  the  cuckoo,  and  the  quail,  makes  their  melodies 
to  differ  from  those  assigned  to  them  by  Clark. 

The  method  and  direction  of  the  theories  proposed  by  these  authors 
are  excellent ;  but  1  do  not  believe  that  they  have  discovered  the  real 
origin  of  the  sense  of  music  and  dancing.  I  think  that  the  suggestion 
given  in  the  text,  although  it  requires  development,  is  nearer  the 
truth.  Consciousness  of  the  great  law  by  which  things  exist  in  a 
classified  form  seems  to  me  to  be  the  cause  of  the  sense  of  graduated 
pleasure,  which  constitutes  the  essence  of  all  the  arts. 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  299 

stringed  instruments  which  accompanied  the  songs, 
after  the  specification  of  the  modes  of  speech  was  so 
far  advanced  as  to  distinguish  singing — which  had 
already  become  an  art — from  the  daily  necessity  of 
reciprocal  communication  in  words.  In  this  research 
we  must  proceed  step  by  step,  aided  by  minute 
observation,  lest  we  should  accept  an  hypothesis 
which  does  not  correspond  with  the  facts. 

Not  only  man,  but  some  animals — among  others 
a  species  of  mouse  found  in  South  Africa — naturally 
uses  his  limbs  to  moderate  or  strengthen  the  light  of 
vision.  This  mouse  was  observed  to  shade  its  eyes 
with  its  forepaws  in  order  to  look  at  some  distant 
object  under  a  blazing  sun,  as  we  should  do  in  like 
conditions.  In  man,  whose  arms  and  hands  are 
readily  adapted  to  this  primitive  art,  the  habit  is 
common,  even  among  the  rudest  savages.  Putting 
sight  out  of  the  question  that  we  may  consider  hear- 
ing, which  is  our  present  theme,  reflex  movements, 
either  casual  or  habitual,  have  certainly  induced 
primitive  men  to  place  their  hands  on  the  mouth, 
either  so  as  to  suppress  the  sound  or  to  augment  it 
by  using  both  hands  as  a  kind  of  shell.  It  is  easy  to 
imagine  the  use  of  shells  or  other  hollow  objects  as  a 
vehicle  of  sound,  either  for  amusement  or  some  other 
cause,  and  these  rude  instruments  might  serve  as  the 
first  step  to  the  invention  of  wind  instruments.  Ke- 
flection  on  these  spontaneous  experiments  would 
readily  lead  to  the  search  for  some  mode  of  prolong- 


300  MYTH   AND   SCIENCE. 

ing  or  imitating  the  voice.  In  these  attempts  men 
might  be  guided  by  their  observation  of  the  whistle 
and  song  of  birds,  whose  beaks  may  have  served  as  a 
model  for  the  construction  of  the  flute  and  reed-pipe. 
Pott  traces  the  word  for  sound  to  the  root  svar,  and 
hence,  after  some  natural  phonetic  changes/ we  have 
in  Lithuanian  szwilpti  for  the  song  of  birds.  Of 
all  natural  objects,  different  kinds  of  reeds  and  the 
hollow  stalks  of  plants  are,  owing  to  their  hollow  and 
cylindrical  form,  best  adapted  for  the  imitation  of  a 
bird's  beak  and  the  sonorous  transmission  of  breath. 
In  many  languages  the  word  for  a  flute  is  the  same 
as  that  for  a  reed.  In  Sanscrit,  vdnqa  and  venu  mean 
a  flute  and  bamboo ;  in  Persian,  nd  and  nay  mean  a 
flute  and  reed ;  in  Greek  Sovae,  and  in  Latin  calamus, 
have  the  same  double  meaning,  and  many  more 
examples  might  be  given. 

Stringed  instruments  are  a  more  elaborate  in- 
vention, and  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  vibra- 
tion of  a  bow-string  when  it  is  twanged.  The  bow 
is  common  to  all  modern  savages,  and  was  also  found 
among  extinct  peoples  and  those  which  are  now 
civilized,  as  well  as  in  prehistoric  times.  The  San- 
scrit word  for  a  stringed  instrument,  tata  or  vitata, 
is  derived  from  the  root  tan,  to  stretch.  Pictet 
observes  that  one  name  for  a  lute  is  rudri,  from  rud, 
to  lament,  that  is,  a  plaintive  instrument ;  in  Persian 
we  have  rod  for  song,  music,  or  a  stringed  instru- 
ment. The  etymology  of  arcus  is  the  same ;  the  root 


DEEAMS   AND  ILLUSIONS.  301 

arc  not  only  means  to  hurl,  but  to  sing  or  resound. 
Homer  and  Eannjana  often  allude  to  the  sonorous- 
ness of  the  bow  and  its  string.  Homer  says  in 
speaking  of  the  bow  of  Pandarus,  "  stridit  funis,  et 
nervus  valde  sonuit."  And  when  Ulysses  drew  his 
avenging  bow,  the  cord  emitted  a  clear  sound  like  the 
voice  of  a  swallow.  Locaka,  another  name  for  a  cord, 
also  means  one  who  speaks,  from  loc,  loqui ;  and 
the  Persian  rud,  roda,  a  bow-string,  also  means  a 
song.  In  the  Veda  the  root  arc'  is  used  in  speaking 
of  the  roaring  wind,  or  of  a  long  echoing  sound. 
Again  tdvara,  a  bow-string,  is  from  tan,  to  stretch,  to 
sound.  The  Greek  rovog  must  be  referred  to  the 
same  root,  and  signifies  a  bow-string,  a  sound,  an 
accent,  a  tone.  Benfey  traces  the  Greek  \vpa,  in 
which  this  root  is  wanting,  through  XvSpa,  or  rudra. 
Kuhn  confirms  this  transformation  by  the  analogy 
between  the  Vedic  god  Rudra  and  the  Greek  Apollo, 
both  of  whom  are  armed  with  a  bow,  Rudra,  like 
Apollo,  is  a  great  physician;  the  former  is  called 
kapardin,  from  his  mode  of  wearing  his  long  hair, 
and  vanku  from  his  tortuous  gait  as  the  god  of 
storms ;  to  the  latter  the  epithets  of  a\fpc  ^x0^  an^ 
Xo£iac  are  applied ;  the  mouse  was  sacred  to  Eudro, 
and  Apollo  had  the  surname  of  Smintheus,  from  the 
mouse,  *S,fitvOa,  which  was  his  symbol. 

These  wind  and  stringed  instruments  were  not,  in 
their  primitive  forms,  at  once  used  as  an  accompani- 
ment to  song.  Before  such  use  was  possible,  there 


302  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

must  have  been  considerable  progress  in  the  speci- 
fication of  language,  and  special  songs  must  have 
been  disintegrated  from  common  speech,  which  was 
at  first  an  inchoate  song.  Possibly  some  rude  in- 
struments were  invented  for  amusement  or  some 
other  purpose  before  this  specification  had  taken 
place.  At  any  rate  the  use  of  various  instruments 
for  accompaniment  was  preceded  by  gesticulation,  or 
the  spontaneous  striking  of  some  object  which  coin- 
cided with  animated  speech,  or  which  accompanied  it 
in  sonorous  cadences. 

The  rhythm  which  stimulated  primitive  men  to 
speak  in  song,  also  impelled  them  to  accompany  it 
with  gestures  and  movements  of  the  body,  and  this 
was  the  origin  of  the  dance,  which,  when  the  body 
moved  in  correspondence  with  cadenced  utterances, 
was  at  first  merely  the  accompaniment  of  song.  Tra- 
dition, modern  ethnography,  and  the  primitive  habits 
of  children  bear  witness  to  this  fact.  In  addition  to 
the  rhythmic  motion  of  all  parts  of  the  body,  there 
is  the  practice  of  spontaneously  beating  time  with  the 
hands  and  feet,  which  were  doubtless  the  first  in- 
struments used  by  man  as  a  musical  accompaniment. 
Hence,  owing  to  the  facility  of  construction,  there 
arose  percussion  instruments,  which  were  at  first 
made  of  stone  or  pieces  of  wood.  So  that  singing, 
dancing,  accompaniment  with  the  limbs  or  with  some 
rudely  fashioned  object  arose  almost  simultaneously, 
as  soon  as  the  process  of  specification  had  established 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  303 

a  distinction  between  song  and  ordinary  speech.  The 
first  simple  instruments  which  we  have  described  only 
made  the  song,  shout,  war- dance,  or  religious  cere- 
mony more  effective. 

When  chanted  speech  was  formulated  in  a  fixed 
order  by  means  of  rhythm  and  the  modulations  of 
the  voice,  it  became  verse,  and  the  melody  itself,  as 
the  simple  expression  of  the  song  which  had  been 
cast  into  verse,  or  even  into  an  inarticulate  chant, 
was  naturally  evolved  from  it.  An  artistic  education 
is  not  needed  in  order  to  experience  the  pleasure  of 
rhythmic  order  in  the  succession  of  sound,  for  a  pre- 
disposition of  the  nervous  system  will  suffice.  Savages, 
children,  and  even  animals  are  sensible  of  rhythm, 
which  is  the  order  and  symmetry  of  sensations.  The 
dance,  as  Beauquier  justly  observes,  is  the  practical 
form  of  rhythmic  motion  and  the  gesture  of  music. 
The  motion  impressed  by  sound  on  the  internal  or- 
ganism tends  to  manifest  itself  in  external  gesture, 
and  in  fact,  the  rhythm  of  the  music  is  repeated  in 
dancing  in  the  limbs  and  in  the  whole  body  of  the 
dancer.  The  rhythm,  regarded  in  its  material  cause, 
need  not  be  accompanied  by  any  very  musical  sound. 
The  percussion  instruments  were  at  first  only  used  to 
mark  and  intensify  the  rhythm. 

Melody  may  be  termed  a  fusion  of  rhythm  and 
sounds  of  different  pitches,  united  in  time,  and 
assuming  a  regular  and  symmetrical  form;  melody, 
as  others  also  have  observed,  constitutes  the  whole 

14 


304-  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  music,  since  without  it  harmony  itself  is  vague  and 
indefinite.  Notwithstanding  the  numerous  elements 
which  may  be  discerned  in  melody,  and  the  labour  im- 
plied in  its  analysis,  it  is  the  facile  and  spontaneous 
creation  of  man,  at  any  rate  in  its  simplest  expression; 
uneducated  people,  ignorant  of  music,  are  able  to 
invent  very  tolerable  melodies,  of  which  we  have 
instances  in  popular  and  national  songs,"  which  are 
generated  by  the  musical  fancy  of  those  unconscious 
of  the  laws  of  music.  Melody  has  an  independent  ex- 
istence, while  harmony  serves  to  accentuate  its  form, 
and  conduces  to  its  subsequent  progress  among  peo- 
ples capable  of  developing  it  in  all  its  power.* 

Music  has  a  powerful  influence  upon  all  the 
senses.  It  has  at  all  times  been  supposed  to  have 
a  healing  power,  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  be- 
lieved to  cure  epilepsy,  madness,  convulsions,  hysteria, 
and  all  forms  of  nervous  affections ;  while  in  our  own 
time  it  is  usefully  employed  in  cerebral  diseases,  since 
it  has  both  a  stimulating  and  soothing  effect.  Women, 
since  they  are  generally  more  nervous  and  sensitive 
than  men,  are  more  especially  affected  by  music. 
Animals  as  well  as  man  are  influenced  by  it,  as  it 
has  been  shown  by  exact  and  numerous  experiments. 
Every  one  knows  that  many  birds  can  be  taught  airs, 
which  they  sing  with  taste  and  lively  satisfaction. 
The  major  key,  with  its  regular  proportions,  its  full 
and  gradual  sounds,  arouses  in  man  a  sense  of  life 

*  See  Beauquier's  " Philosophic  de  la  Mmique" 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  305 

and  joy,  while  the  minor  key  excites  languor  and 
invincible  sadness,  and  animals  are  affected  in  the 
same  way. 

It  is  evident  that  the  formation  of  the  scale,  the 
essential  foundation  of  music,  varies  with  the  epoch, 
climate,  habits,  and  physiological  conditions  of  the 
different  races  which  have  successively  adopted  the 
diatonic,  the  major,  and  minor  scales.  The  music  of  the 
Chinese  differs  from  our  own,  and  while  it  is  equally 
elaborate,  it  does  not  quite  please  us,  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  the  music  of  the  Indians,  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  and  others.  Undoubtedly  our  scale  is 
more  convenient  and  conformable  to  art,  setting  aside 
the  physiological  conditions  of  race,  since  the  notes 
separated  by  regular  intervals  form  a  more  spiritual 
and  independent,  in  short  a  more  artistic  system. 

Such  are  briefly  the  characteristics  of  the  genesis 
of  song  and  of  music,  the  actual  conditions  which 
make  them  possible,  and  their  effect  on  man  and 
animals.  We  must  now  consider  the  subject  from  the 
mythical  point  of  view,  as  we  have  done  in  the  case 
of  the  other  arts.  We  know  that  the  image  and 
emotions  are  mythically  personified  by  us,  and  this 
fanciful  reality  is  afterwards  infused  into  the  words 
used  in  its  expression.  It  follows  from  this  that 
speech  is  not  only  spontaneously  and  unconsciously 
personified  as  the  material  covering  of  the  idea  or 
emotion  enclosed  in  it,  but  that  the  same  thing  occurs 
in  language  as  a  whole,  at  first  vaguely,  but  after- 


306  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

wards  in  a  definite  and  reflective  manner,  in  conse- 
quence of  intellectual  development.  Among  all 
civilized  peoples,  whether  extinct  or  still  in  existence, 
speech  is  not  only  personified  in  the  complex  idea  or 
language,  but  it  is  deified.  It  is  well  known  that  this 
is  the  case  in  all  phases  of  Eastern  Christianity,  and 
that  the  other  Christian  churches  have  since  identified 
the  Graeco-E  astern  idea  of  the  Logos  with  the  Messianic 
ideas  engrafted  upon  it.  If  among  the  prehistoric 
peoples  which  most  resemble  modern  savages,  speech 
was  personified  by  the  necessity  of  the  perceptive 
faculty,  a  vague  power  was  certainly  ascribed  to  it, 
and  even  a  simple  murmur  or  whisper  was  supposed 
to  have  a  direct  and  personal  influence  on  things,  men, 
and  animals.  Magic,  which  is  the  primitive  expression 
of  fetishtic  power,  embodied  in  a  man,  had  its  most 
efficacious  form  in  the  utterance  of  words,  cries, 
whispers,  or  songs,  referring  to  the  malign  or  to  the 
healing  and  beneficent  arts,  and  it  was  employed  to 
arouse  or  to  calm  storms,  to  destroy  or  improve  the 
harvest,  or  for  like  purposes. 

Beginning  with  the  traditions  of  our  race,  even 
prior  to  its  dispersion,  there  are  plain  proofs  that 
words  and  songs  were  originally  employed  for  exorcisms 
and  magic  in  various  diseases,  and  for  incantations 
directed  against  men  or  things.  Kar  means  to 
bewitch,  as  in  German  we  have  einem  etwas  anthun, 
in  low  Latin  facturare,  in  Italian  fattucchiere,  and  from 
Kar  we  have  carmen,  a  song  or  magic  formula.  The 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  307 

goddess  Carmenta,  who  was  supposed  to  watch  over 
childbirth,  derived  her  name  from  carmen,  the  magic 
formula  which  was  used  to  aid  the  delivery.  The 
name  was  also  used  for  a  prophetess,  as  Carmenta,  the 
mother  of  Evander.  Servio  tells  us  that  the  augurs 
were  termed  carmentes*  The  Sanscrit  mdya,  meaning 
magic  or  illusion  and,  in  the  Veda,  wisdom,  is  derived 
from  man,  to  think  or  know;  from  man  we  have 
mantra,  magic  formula  or  incantation ;  in  Zend,  man- 
thra  is  an  incantation  against  disease,  and  hence  we 
have  the  Erse  manadh,  incantation  or  juggling,  and 
moniti  in  Lithuanian.  The  linguistic  researches  of 
Pictet,  Pott,  Benfey,  Kuhn,  and  others  show  that  in 
primitive  times  singing,  poetry,  hymns,  the  celebration 
of  rites,  and  the  relation  of  tales,  were  identical  ideas, 
expressed  in  identical  forms,  and  even  the  name  for  a 
nightingale  had  the  same  derivation.  So  also  the 
names  of  a  singer,  poet,  a  wise  man,  and  a  magician, 
came  from  the  same  root. 

Among  all  historic  and  savage  peoples  it  was  the 
general  practice  to  use  exorcism  by  means  of  magic 
formulas  and  incantations,  combined  with  the  noise  of 
rude  instruments;  this  was  part  of  the  pathology, 
meteorology,  and  demonology  which  dated  from  the 
beginning  of  speech,  and  the  first  rude  ideas  of 
fetishes  and  spirits  have  persisted  in  various  forms 

*  Serv.  on  the  ^Eneid.  "What  the  oracles  sang  was  termed 
carmentis :  the  seers  used  to  be  called  carmentes,  and  the  books  in 
which  their  sayings  were  inscribed  were  termed  carmentorios. 


308  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

down  to  our  days.  We  have  a  plain  proof  of  this 
in  a  work  dedicated  to  Pius  IX.  by  M.  Gaume,  in 
which  he  sets  forth  the  virtue  of  holy  water  against 
the  innumerable  powers  of  evil  which,  as  he  declares, 
still  people  the  cosmic  spaces,  and  similar  rites  may 
be  traced  in  the  liturgies  of  all  modern  religions. 
This  belief  is  directly  founded  on  the  fanciful  per- 
sonification and  incarnation  of  a  power  in  speech 
itself,  in  song,  and  in  sound.  David  had  similar 
ideas  of  dancing  and  its  accessories,  and  the  walls 
of  Jericho  are  said  to  have  fallen  at  the  sound  of 
the  trumpets,  as  if  these  contained  the  spirit  of 
God.  The  Patagonians,  to  quote  a  single  instance 
from  among  savages,  drive  away  the  evil  spirits 
of  diseases  with  magic  songs,  accompanied  by  drums 
on  which  demons  are  painted.  To  these  mythical 
ideas  we  must  refer  the  worship  of  trees,  which 
involves  that  of  birds,  so  far  as  they  whistle  and 
sing. 

The  worship  of  trees  and  groves  is  universal : 
peculiar  trees,  groves,  and  woods  are  worshipped  in 
Tahiti,  in  the  Fiji  Islands,  and  throughout  Polynesia; 
in  barbarous  Asia,  in  Europe,  America,  and  the  whole 
of  Africa.  Cameron,  Schweinfurth,  Stanley,  and  other 
modern  travellers  in  Africa  give  many  instances  of 
this.  Schweinfurth  describes  such  a  worship  among 
the  Niam-Niam,  who  hold  that  the  forest  is  inhabited 
by  invisible  beings.  This  worship  is  naturally  com- 
bined with  that  of  birds,  which  become  the  confidants 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  309 

of  the  forest,  repeat  the  mysteries  of  mother  earth,  and 
sometimes  become  interpreters  and  prophets  to  man. 
Birds,  by  their  power  of  moving  through  the  air 
as  lords  of  the  aerial  space,  by  their  arts  of  building, 
by  the  beauty  of  their  plumage,  their  secret  haunts  in 
the  forests  and  rocks,  by  their  frequent  appearance 
both  by  day  and  night,  and  by  the  variety  of  their 
songs,  must  necessarily  have  excited  the  fetishtic 
fancy  of  primitive  men.  The  worship  of  birds  was 
therefore  universal,  in  connection  with  that  of  trees, 
meteors,  and  waters.  They  were  supposed  to  cause 
storms;  and  the  eagle,  the  falcon,  the  magpie,  and 
some  other  birds  brought  the  celestial  fire  on  the 
earth.  The  worship  of  birds  is  also  common  in 
America,  and  in  Central  America  the  bird  voc  is  the 
messenger  of  Hurakau,  the  god  of  storms.  The  magic- 
doctors  of  the  Cri,  of  the  Arikari,  and  of  the  Indians 
of  the  Antilles,  wore  the  feathers  and  images  of  the 
owl  as  an  emblem  of  the  divine  inspiration  by  which 
they  were-  animated.  Similar  beliefs  are  conrnon  in 
Africa  and  Polynesia.*  It  is  well  known  that  the 
Egyptians  worshipped  the  ibis,  the  hawk,  and  other 
birds,  and  that  the  Greeks  worshipped  birds  and  trees 
at  Dodona,  in  consequence  of  a  celebrated  oracle.  In 
Italy  the  lapwing  and  the  magpie  became  Pilumnus 
and  Picus,  who  led  the  Sabines  into  Picenus. 
Divination  by  eagles  and  other  birds  was  practised 

*  See  Girard  de  Rialle :  Mythologie  Comparde.    VoL  I.  Paris,  1878. 
A  valuable  and  learned  work. 


310  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

at  Borne,  and  German,  Slav,  and  Celtic  traditions 
abound  in  similar  myths.*  Nor  are  they  wanting  in 
the  Bible  itself,  in  which  we  hear  of  the  trees  of 
knowledge  and  of  life,  of  some  celebrated  trees  in  the 
times  of  the  patriarchs,  of  the  raven  and  the  dove  sent 
out  as  messengers.  The  Old  Testament  speaks  of  the 
worship  of  groves  at  Ashtaroth  in  Canaan,  of  sacri- 
fices under  the  green  trees,  and  we  know  that  such 
worship  occurred  in  the  Semitic  races  of  Numidia  and 
elsewhere. 

The  simultaneous  elaboration  of  myths  relating  to 
trees  and  birds  as  objects  of  worship,  as  beneficent 
or  malign  powers,  and  as  the  transmitters  of  oracles, 
necessarily  confirmed  and  extended  the  personifica- 
tions of  speech  and  song,  and  were  fused  through 
many  sources  into  a  whole,  which  represented  a 
supernatural  agent,  endowed  with  the  power  of  a 
mediator,  of  a  good  or  evil  spirit  or  idol.  This 
ultimately  led  to  a  universal  conception  of  the 
efficacy  of  sound,  considered  as  the  manifestation  of 
occult  powers.  In  this  mythically  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere, all  peoples  formerly  lived  and  in  great  part 
still  continue  to  live. 

As  the  innate  impulse  led  to  the  entification  of 
speech  and  of  the  singing  of  men  and  animals,  so  it 
also  led  to  the  mythical  personification  of  dancing  and 
instrumental  music,  in  which  nearly  all  peoples  have 

*  The  intense  character  of  the  worship  of  groves  in  Italy  appears 
from  Quintilianus,  who  says,  in  speaking  of  Ennius:  "Ennium  sicut 
sacros  reinstate  Iticos  adoremus" 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  311 

recognized  a  demoniac  and  deliberate  power.  For 
this  reason,  dancing  and  the  noise  of  rude  instruments 
generally  accompanied  solemn  religious  and  civil 
ceremonies,  and  any  remarkable  cosmic,  astral,  or 
meteorological  fact ;  and  in  polytheistic  times  the 
deities  of  poetry,  dancing,  and  music  served  to 
accentuate  and  classify  ideas. 

The  instrument  became  a  fetish,  and  was  invested 
with  a  mysterious  power  resembling  that  which  was 
supposed  to  exist  in  all  utterances  of  the  animal 
world.  Indeed,  instruments  were,  and  still  are  among 
savages,  regarded  as  sacred  and  as  an  integral 
part  of  public  worship,  so  that  each  had  its  definite 
function  and  office.  This  need  not  surprise  us, 
since  for  such  men  every  object  is  a  fetish,  which  con- 
tains a  soul.  The  Karens,  a  tribe  in  Burmah,  believe 
that  their  arms,  knives,  utensils,  etc.,  have  all  a  kelap 
or  soul,  which  is  termed  a  wong  by  the  negroes  of 
West  Africa.  The  same  belief  is  found  in  a  more 
explicit  form  among  the  Algonquins,  the  Fijians,  and 
the  aforesaid  Karens,  whose  beliefs  are  characteristic 
of  all  peoples  which  have  reached  this  stage  of 
mythical  conceptions.  The  different  objects  belong- 
ing to  a  dead  man,  and  his  instruments,  arms,  and 
utensils,  are  laid  in  his  tomb,  or  burnt  with  his  body, 
and  this  is  owing  to  the  belief  that  the  souls  of  these 
objects  follow  their  possessor  into  another  life.  The 
same  custom  unfortunately  extends  to  persons,  and 
there  are  instances  of  this  evil  practice  among  rela- 


312  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

tively  civilized  nations;  the  massacre  which  takes 
place  at  the  death  of  a  king  of  Dahomey  is  well 
known,  and  is  revolting  from  the  number  of  victims 
and  from  the  mode  of  their  sacrifice.  It  is  therefore 
easy  to  imagine  the  way  in  which  musical  instruments 
and  the  sounds  produced  by  them  were  personified, 
since  these  manifestations  seemed  to  approximate 
more  closely  to  those  of  animals. 

Fetishtic  beliefs  concerning  magic  songs  or  sounds 
were,  as  we  have  seen,  confirmed  by  the  influence 
naturally  exerted  on  men  and  animals  in  their 
normal  or  abnormal  state  by  rhythmic  and  musical 
sounds,  however  rude  and  unformed  they  may  be. 
Theophrastus  tells  us  that  blowing  a  flute  over  the 
affected  limb  was  supposed  to  cure  gout ;  the  Eomans 
recited  carmina  to  drive  away  disease  and  demons  : 
the  old  Slav  word  for  physician,  vragi,  comes  from 
a  root  which  means  to  murmur ;  in  Servian,  mac  is  a 
physician,  and  balii,  an  enchanter  or  physician.  The 
use  of  incantations  as  a  remedy  prevailed  among  the 
Greeks  in  Homer's  time.  The  Atarva-Veda  retains 
the  old  formula  of  imprecation  against  disease,  and 
the  Zend-avesta  divides  physicians  into  three  classes, 
those  which  cure  with  the  knife,  with  herbs,  and 
with  magic  formulas.  Kuhn  believes  that  the  Latin 
word  mederi  refers  to  these  proceedings,  comparing 
with  it  the  Sanscrit  meth,  medh,  to  oppose  or  curse. 
Pictet  traces  the  meaning  of  exerciser  in  another 
Sanscrit  word  for  a  physician  :  Bhisag  from  sag,  sang, 
tojurbo  gate. 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  313 

As  the  civilization  of  the  historic  races  advanced, 
poetry,  singing,  and  musical  instruments  became 
more  perfect,  and  were  classified  as  reflex  arts. 
Among  the  more  intellectual  classes  the  earlier 
fetishtic  ideas  connected  with  them  almost  dis- 
appeared, while  in  the  case  of  the  common  people, 
the  fetish  was  idealized,  but  not  therefore  lost ;  it 
persisted,  and  still  persists,  under  other  forms. 
Polytheism,  modified  to  suit  the  place,  time,  and 
race,  and  yet  essentially  the  same,  offers  us  a  more 
ideal  form  of  the  arts,  each  of  which  was  personified 
as  a  god,  and  taken  together  they  formed  a  heavenly 
company,  which  generated  and  presided  over  the  arts. 
The  greatest  poets  and  philosophers  of  antiquity 
retained  a  sincere  belief  in  the  inspiration  of  every 
creation  of  art ;  and  this  was  only  a  more  noble  and 
intellectual  form  of  the  first  rude  and  indefinite  con- 
ception by  which  the  arts  were  embodied  in  a  material 
shape. 

Of  all  the  Aryan  peoples,  Greece  represented  her 
Olympus  in  the  most  glorious  mythical  form,  set 
forth  by  all  the  arts  of  description.  From  the  poly- 
theistic point  of  view,  nothing  can  be  asthetically 
more  perfect  than  the  myths  of  Apollo  and  the 
Muses,  which  personify  harmony  in  general,  and 
whatever  is  peculiar  to  the  arts.  Such  conceptions, 
by  which  the  arts  of  speech,  song,  vocal  and  instru- 
mental music  were  embodied  in  myths,  did  not  dis- 
appear as  time  went  on,  but  were  perpetuated  in 


314  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

another  form.  Music,  which  was  always  becoming 
more  elaborate,  continued  to  be  the  highest  inspira- 
tion, a  divine  power,  an  external  and  harmonious 
manifestation  of  celestial  beings,  of  eternal  life,  and 
the  order  of  the  world.  This  conception  was 
shadowed  forth  in  the  Pythagorean  theory  of  the 
mythical  harmony  of  the  spheres  :  that  school  re- 
garded the  world  as  a  musical  system,  an  harmonious 
dance  of  planets. 

The  fetishtic  and  mythical  origin  common  to  all 
the  arts  is  clearly  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  a  period 
relatively  advanced,  but  still  very  remote,  they  were 
formulated  in  the  temple,  a  symbolic  representation 
of  their  deities,  to  be  found  even  among'  the  most 
primitive  peoples.  The  evolution  of  the  arts  towards 
a  more  rational  conception,  divested  of  mythical  and 
religious  influence,  took  the  form  of  releasing  each  art 
from  bondage  to  the  temple,  and  enabling  it  to  assume 
a  more  distinct,  free,  and  secular  personality,  an  evolu- 
tion which  was  however  somewhat  difficult  and  slow  in 
the  case  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music.  Although 
in  our  own  time  it  has  achieved  a  field  for  itself,  yet 
in  oratorios  and  ecclesiastical  music  the  old  concep- 
tion remains. 

The  joys  of  the  Elysian  fields  and  of  Paradise,  as 
rewards  of  the  good  and  faithful  after  death,  varying 
in  details  with  the  moral  and  mythical  beliefs  of 
various  peoples,  were  heightened  by  concerts  and 
musical  symphonies,  as,  owing  to  natural  evolution 


DKEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  315 

and  the  introduction  of  Oriental  ideas,  it  appears 
even  in  the  Christian  conception  of  Paradise.  For 
the  great  majority  of  believers,  earthly  music  is  only 
an  echo  of  that  celestial  music,  and  participates  in 
its  divine  efficacy.  In  the  Christian  Paradise  there 
were  saints  to  preside  over  the  instruments,  the 
singing,  and  music;  the  visions  of  the  ecstatic,  the 
hallucinations  of  the  mystic,  and  the  precious  memories 
and  images  of  the  dead,  are  often  combined  with 
sweet  and  heavenly  music,  and  this  completes  the 
fetishtic  idea  which  enters  into  every  phenomenon 
with  which  man  has  to  do.  For  if  inanimate 
objects  and  instruments  were  supposed  by  the 
primitive  savage  to  have  a  soul  which  followed 
the  shade  of  the  dead  man  into  the  mythical  abode 
beyond  the  grave,  in  modern  religions  the  earthly 
instruments,  the  fanciful  idols  of  the  common  people 
and  of  mystics,  also  resound  in  Elysium  and  the 
heavens,  touched  and  inspired  by  choirs  of  angels 
and  by  seraphic  powers.  * 

The  deep  and  sonorous  music  of  bells,  of  organs, 
and  other  ecclesiastical  instruments,  the  chants  which 
resound  through  vaulted  roofs  amid  the  assembled 
worshippers,  ecclesiastical  lights,  and  the  fumes  of 
incense,  inspire  many  Christians  with  a  deep  and 
aesthetic  sense  of  the  divine  presence ;  and  at  such 
moments  their  vivid  faith  joins  heaven  and  earth  in 
the  same  harmonious  emotion.  The  music,  chants, 
and  harmony,  combined  with  other  solemn  rites,  are 


316  MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

unconsciously  embodied  by  us,  entering  into  our 
hearts  as  they  circle  round  the  church,  and  they 
become  the  mysterious  language  of  celestial  powers. 
We  are  once  more  immersed  in  the  world  of  fancy 
and  of  myth,  purified  however  by  the  evolution  it  has 
undergone.  This  exalted  state  of  mind  is  also  ex- 
perienced by  those  who  listen  to  profane  music,  since 
the  harmony  and  modulation  of  sound,  and  the  ex- 
pression given  to  it  by  the  combination  of  various 
instruments,  immediately  affect  the  soul  of  the  listener 
as  a  whole,  without  the  aid  of  reflection,  and  a  sub- 
stantial entity  which  deliberately  fulfils  its  sponta- 
neous cycle  of  development  is  thus  created;  in  a 
word,  the  harmonies  they  hear  are  unconsciously 
personified.  Any  one  who  makes  a  deep  and  careful 
analysis  of  his  states  of  consciousness  in  these  cir- 
cumstances will  admit  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 

The  ordinary  modes  of  expression  respecting  music, 
which  are  in  use  not  only  among  uneducated  people, 
but  among  those  who  are  educated  and  civilized,  dis 
play  the  earlier  and  innate  belief  in  the  mythical 
representations  of  this  art.  The  expressions  may  be 
often  heard :  What  divine  music  !  What  angelic  har- 
mony !  This  song  is  really  seraphic !  and  the  like. 
Such  expressions  not  only  bear  witness  to  the  old 
mythical  sentiment,  and  to  the  ultimate  development 
of  its  form,  but  they  also  indicate  the  actual  senti- 
ments of  the  speaker.  The  personifying  power  of  the 
human  intelligence  is  such  as  to  recur  spontaneously, 


DEEAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  317 

even  in  one  who  has  abandoned  these  ancient  illu- 
sions, if  he  surrenders  himself  for  a  while  to  his 
natural  instinct.  It  has  often  happened  that  a  man 
who  listens  to  a  melodious  and  beautiful  piece  of 
music  is  gradually  aroused  and  excited  by  its  sweet 
power,  so  as  to  be  carried  away  into  a  world  of  new 
sensations,  in  which  all  our  sentiments  and  affec- 
tions, our  deepest,  tenderest,  and  dearest  aspirations 
blossom  afresh  in  our  memory,  and  are  fused  into 
and  strengthened  by  these  harmonies ;  we  seem  to  be 
transported  into  ethereal  regions,  and  unconsciously 
surrender  ourselves  to  their  influence.  This  kind  of 
natural  ecstasy  is  not  produced  merely  by  the  physio- 
logical effects  of  music  on  the  organism,  by  the  edu- 
cation of  our  sense  of  beauty,  and  of  our  reminiscences 
of  earlier  mythical  emotions,  but  also  by  the  innate 
impulse  which  still  persists,  leading  us  to  idealize 
and  vivify  all  natural  phenomena,  and  also  our  own 
sensations. 

But  if  among  the  common  people,  the  devout,  and 
occasionally  also  among  people  of  culture,  this  highest 
art  is  not  divested  of  its  mythical  environment,  which 
still  persists,  although  in  a  more  ideal  form,  yet  it 
has  followed  and  still  follows  the  general  evolution  of 
human  ideas.  The  art  of  music  was  identified  with 
song  and  with  the  mythical  personality  ascribed  to 
it,  of  which  these  instruments  were  the  extrinsic  and 
harmonious  echo ;  at  first,  like  the  other  arts,  it 
was  a  religious  conception  and  entity  pertaining 


318  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

to  the  Church,  but  it  gradually  assumed  a  character 
of  its  own,  was  dissociated  from  the  Church,  and 
became  a  secular  art,  diverging  more  and  more  from 
the  mythical  ideas  with  which  it  had  before  been 
filled.  When  instruments  increased  in  number,  and 
became  more  perfect  in  quality ;  when  harmony, 
strictly  so  called,  was  developed  and  became  more 
efficient,  instrumental  music  still  continued  to  be  the 
servant  of  vocal  music,  and  was  employed  to  give 
emphasis,  relief,  warmth,  and  colour  to  the  art  of  song, 
which  continued  to  be  supreme.  Song  had  its  pecu- 
liar musical  character,  and  the  human  voice,  alone 
or  in  a  chorus,  might  be  regarded  as  the  type  of 
instrumental  music,  rendered  more  effective  by  the 
words  which  expressed  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of 
such  songs  by  harmonizing  the  various  vocal  instru- 
ments in  accordance  with  their  tones  and  varying 
timbre.  Instrumental  music,  by  the  melodious  har- 
mony of  artificial  sounds,  had  however  a  vast  field 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  an  existence  independent  of  the 
human  voice.  This  was  and  is,  in  addition  to  its 
release  from  the  bonds  of  myth,  the  necessary  result 
of  the  evolution  of  this  highest  art. 

Instrumental  music,  considered  in  itself,  with  the 
symphony  as  its  highest  expression,  has  been  de- 
clared by  a  learned  writer  to  be  the  grandest  artistic 
creation,  and  the  ultimate  form  of  art  in  which  the 
vast  cycle  of  all  things  human  will  find  its  develop- 
ment. A  symphony  is  an  architectural  construction 


DREAMS  AND  ILLUSIONS.  319 

of  sounds,  mobile  in  form,  and  not  absolutely  devoid 
of  a  literary  meaning.  Yet  we  must  not  seek  in  in- 
strumental music  for  that  which  it  cannot  afford, 
such  as  the  ideas  contained  in  words.  Any  one  must 
admit  the  futility  of  the  attempt  to  give  a  dramatic 
interpretation  or  language  to  instrumental  music,  who 
reads  the  description  attempted  by  Lenz  and  other 
writers  of  some  of  Beethoven's  sonatas.  Instrumental 
music  does  not  lend  itself  to  these  interpretations, 
since  it  is  an  art  with  an  independent  existence.  We 
have  observed  that  in  its  first  development  it  was  used 
as  an  accompaniment  to  the  voice,  or  associated  with 
the  movements  of  the  body,  or  with  the  dance,  and 
consequently  had  not  the  independence  which  was 
gradually  achieved,  until  it  culminated  in  the  sym- 
phony. Instrumental  music  adds  nothing  to  literature, 
nor  to  the  expression  of  ideas  and  sentiments,  but  in  it 
pure  music  consists,  and  it  is  the  very  essence  of  the 
art.  Literature  and  poetry  belong  to  a  definite  order 
of  ideas  and  emotions;  music  is  only  able  to  afford 
musical  ideas  and  sentiments.  Instrumental  music 
has  its  peculiar  province  as  the  supreme  art  which 
composes  its  own  poems  by  means  of  the  order,  suc- 
cession, and  harmony  of  sounds  ;  it  delights,  ravishes, 
and  moves  us  by  exciting  the  emotional  part  of  our 
nature,  and  thus  arouses  a  world  of  ideas  which  may 
be  modified  at  pleasure,  and  which  may,  by  the 
powerful  means  at  its  disposal,  produce  effects  of 
which  instruments  merely  used  for  accompanying  the 


320  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

voice  are  incapable.  When  instrumental  music  was 
released  from  all  servitude  to  other  arts,  as  well 
as  from  all  positive  sense  of  religious  emotions  or 
mythical  and  symbolic  prejudice,  thought  was  able 
to  create  the  art  of  sounds,  which  contains  in  itself 
a  special  aim  and  meaning. 

We  have  thus  reached  the  term  of  our  arduous 
and  fatiguing  journey.  We  flatter  ourselves  that  a 
truth  has  been  gleaned  from  it,  and  this  conviction 
is  not  due  to  a  presumptuous  reliance  on  our  powers, 
but  on  the  conscientious  honesty  of  our  researches, 
combined  with  a  great  yet  humble  love  of  truth. 
Others,  who  are  better  endowed  with  genius  and 
learning  will  judge  of  our  success,  and  we  shall 
willingly  submit  to  their  criticism  and  correction,  so 
long  as  they  are  fair  and  unprejudiced  and  only  aim 
at  the  truth.  From  animal  perception,  and  the 
mental  and  physical  fact  into  which  it  is  to  be 
resolved,  we  have  traced  the  root  which  in  man's 
case  grows  into  a  mighty  tree ;  the  first  germ  of  all 
the  mythical  ideas  of  every  people  upon  earth.  The 
subjectivity  of  which  animals  and  man  are  spon- 
taneously conscious  in  every  internal  and  external 
phenomenon,  the  subsequent  entification  of  ideas, 
even  after  thought  has  attained  to  these  more  rational 
forms,  are  the  great  factors  of  myth  in  all  its  forms,  of 
superstitions,  of  religions,  and  also  of  science.  We 
have  reduced  all  the  normal  and  abnormal  sources 
of  these  fanciful  ideas  to  that  single  source  which  we 


CONCLUSION.  321 

Lave  just  indicated.  Penetrating  below  the  kingdom 
of  man  into  that  of  animals,  we  have  there  dis- 
covered where  the  germ  was  formed,  and  this  com- 
pletes the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  bears  witness 
to  its  truth.  The  evolution  of  myth  went  through 
the  regular  process,  by  which  it  was  formulated  and 
simplified,  until  it  was  resolved  into  all  the  sciences 
and  rational  arts,  and  was  thus  transformed  into  a 
positive  science,  passing  through  an  ulterior  stage  of 
myth  and  science  before  it  took  the  definitive  form 
of  a  purely  intellectual  conception. 

We  have  seen  that  the  source  of  myth  is  the  same 
as  that  of  science,  since  perception  is  the  condition 
of  both,  and  the  process  pursued  is  identical,  although 
the  subject  on  which  the  faculty  of  thought  is  exercised 
is  changed.  Therefore  the  problem  of  myth,  which 
includes  every  achievement  of  the  human  understand- 
ing, and  fills  all  sociology,  is  transformed  into  the 
problem  of  civilization.  Thought  has  run  its  course 
in  the  vast  evolution  from  myth  to  science,  which  is 
rendered  possible  by  the  permanence  and  duration  of 
a  powerful  and  vigorous  race,  and  hence  came  the 
gradual  transition  from  the  illusions  which  involve 
the  ignorance  and  servitude  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  to  truth  and  liberty,  since  these  are  released 
from  their  earlier  wrappings,  and  the  human  race  rises 
to  a  sense  of  its  nobility  and  highest  good.  We  have 
considered  this  evolution  as  a  whole  and  in  its  details, 
and  have  seen  that  every  achievement  of  the  human 


322  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

understanding  passes  through  the  same  phases,  and 
reaches  the  same  goal.  We  have  adduced  witnesses 
to  confirm  our  own  observation  from  history  and 
ethnography  in  general,  apart  from  any  bias  for  a 
religious  and  scientific  system.  We  believe  that  in  this 
way  alone  there  can  be  any  true  progress  in  the  science 
which  we  have  undertaken  to  consider  in  this  essay. 

The  result  of  the  inquiry  shows  that  by  a  slow 
yet  inevitable  evolution  man  rose  from  his  primeval 
condition  of  error,  illusion,  and  servitude  to  his  fellow 
man,  to  that  degree  of  truth  and  liberty  of  which  he 
is  capable :  he  was  so  made  that  he  necessarily 
advanced  to  the  grand  height  which  has  been  attained 
by  the  most  laborious  and  intelligent  of  the  human 
race.  He  rises  higher,  and  is  more  sensible  of  his  own 
dignity,  in  proportion  as  he  becomes,  within  the  limits 
of  his  nature,  the  artificer  of  his  own  greatness  and 
civilization.  While  many  peoples  have  become  ex- 
tinct, others  have,  owing  to  their  natural  incapacity, 
remained  in  a  savage  and  barbarous  condition,  while 
others  again  have  attained  to  a  certain  amount  of 
civilization,  but  their  mental  evolution  has  stopped 
short.  Our  own  race,  originally,  as  I  believe,  Aryo- 
Semitic,  for  it  is  possible  that  these  two  powerful 
branches  were  derived  from  a  common  stock,  has 
persisted  without  interruption  in  spite  of  many  adver- 
sities and  revolutions,  and  has  displayed  in  successive 
generations  the  progress  of  general  civilization,  and 
the  goal  which  man  is  able  to  reach  in  his  highest 


CONCLUSION.  323 

perfection  of  mind  and  body,  favoured  by  the  physical 
and  biological  conditions  of  climate.  In  this  race, 
whether  with  respect  to  myth  and  science  or  to  civili- 
zation, the  theory  of  evolution  has  practically  been 
carried  out  in  all  its  phases  and  degrees. 

Science  and  freedom  were  the  great  factors  of 
civilization,  or  of  progress  in  every  kind  of  concep- 
tions, sentiments,  and  social  conditions :  the  first 
dissolved  and  destroyed  the  matrix  of  myth  in  which 
the  intelligence  was  at  first  enveloped,  and  liberty, 
which  was  wholly  due  to  science,  made  steady  pro- 
gress a  matter  of  certainty.  So  that  it  may  be  said 
that  the  whole  web  of  human  history,  so  far  as  it 
consists  in  civilization  or  the  progress  of  all  good 
things,  of  the  arts,  and  of  every  intellectual  and  ma- 
terial achievement,  was  the  conflict  of  science,  and  her 
offspring  freedom,  against  ignorance,  and  the  despotism 
which  results  from  ignorance,  under  all  the  social  forms 
in  which  they  are  manifested.  So  that  all  good  and 
wise  men,  sincere  lovers  of  the  dignity  of  mankind 
and  of  the  welfare  of  society  and  of  the  individual, 
ought  to  feel  a  deep  reverence  and  love  for  these  two 
powers,  and  to  be  ready  to  give  up  their  lives  to 
them.  For  if — which  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
world  is  an  impossible  hypothesis — they  were  to  fail, 
the  human  race  would  be  irretrievably  lost,  since 
these  are  our  real  liberators  from  barbarism,  which 
have  upheld  mankind  in  the  struggle  against  it, 
under  whatever  name  these  principles  have  appeared. 


MYTH  AND   SCIENCE. 

I  am  aware  that  my  theory  will  meet  with  many 
obstinate  and  zealous  opponents  in  Italy,  since  I  use 
the  simple  terms  of  reason  and  science,  unqualified 
by  other  arguments,  and  I  maintain  the  absolute 
independence  of  free  thought.  Opposition  is  the 
more  likely  since  science  and  freedom  have  been 
held  responsible  for  sectarian  intemperance,  for  the 
disturbances  of  the  lower  orders,  for  the  inevitable 
disasters,  the  social  and  intellectual  aberrations 
both  of  the  learned  and  of  the  common  peoples : 
science  and  freedom  are  held  to  have  repeated  the 
wiles  of  the  serpent  in  Eden.  But  I  am  not  uneasy 
at  the  thought  of  such  opposition,  since  the  progress 
of  the  human  race  has  been  owing  to  the  fact  that 
men  convinced  of  the  truth  took  no  heed  of  the  super- 
stitious and  interested  war  waged  against  them,  some- 
times from  ignorance  of  things  in  general  and  of  the 
law  which  governs  civilization,  sometimes  from  honest 
conviction. 

The  falsity  of  the  accusation  so  generally  made 
against  science  and  freedom  will  appear  if  we  con- 
sider that  all  the  benefits  we  now  enjoy,  civil,  scientific, 
and  material,  and  which  are  especially  enjoyed  by  the 
men  who  inveigh  most  strongly  against  these  two 
factors,  are  solely  derived  fromf  science  and  freedom. 
Without  them  we  should  be  in  the  civil,  intellectual, 
and  material  condition  of  the  kingdom  of  Dahomey, 
and  in  the  savage  and  barbarous  state  of  all  primitive 
peoples.  If  the  misunderstanding  of  truth  or  an  im- 


CONCLUSION,  325 

perfect  science  is  injurious,  it  must  not  therefore  be 
rejected.  Science  is  the  constant  and  vigilant  gene- 
rator of  all  social  improvement,  and  the  most  formid- 
able enemy  of  the  tyranny  of  a  despot,  of  an  oligarchy, 
or  of  the  multitude,  whether  it  take  a  religious  or 
secular  form.  Since  sharp  instruments  are  powerful 
aids  to  civilization  and  material  prosperity,  they  are 
not  to  be  altogether  set  aside  because  some  persons 
die  miserably  by  them.  As  I  have  always  maintained, 
and  now  repeat  with  still  stronger  conviction,  science 
and  freedom,  the  ever  watchful  guardians  of  the  human 
race,  are  and  must  always  remain  the  sole  remedies 
for  the  evils  which  threaten  us.  I  do  not  dispute  the 
beneficent  influence  of  other  factors  combined  with 
these,  but,  taken  alone,  they  would  be  powerless,  and 
if  science  were  eclipsed  they  would  be  transformed 
into  fresh  causes  of  servitude  and  ignorance,  as  it  has 
often  appeared  in  past  times  when  the  laws  of  science 
and  of  freedom  have  been  set  at  nought.  I  therefore 
declare  science  and  freedom  to  be  the  portion  of  all, 
and  they  should  be  as  widely  diffused  as  possible,  since 
the  way  to  knowledge  and  a  worthy  life  is  open  to  all 
men.  It  is  a  blasphemy  against  heaven  and  earth  to 
presume,  in  the  so-called  interest  of  civil  order,  to 
keep  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  ignoble  servitude 
of  ignorance,  and  men  do  not  perceive  that  they  thus 
become  ready  for  any  disturbance,  and  the  tools  of 
rogues  and  agitators. 

I  hope  and  pray  that  reverence  for  science  and 


326  MYTH  AND  SCIENCE. 

freedom  may  ever  increase  in  Italy.  It  will  be  an 
evil  day  for  her  if  such  reverence  be  lost,  and  she  will 
become  with  every  other  people  in  like  case  a  wretched 
spectacle,  and  will  fall  into  such  abject  misery  as  to 
become  the  laughing- stock  of  every  civilized  nation. 
It  will  be  understood  that  I  do  not  erect  science  and 
liberty  into  fetishes  to  be  generally  adored:  they  are 
only  sacred  means  to  a  more  sacred  end,  namely,  to 
enable  men  to  practise  and  not  merely  to  apprehend 
the  truth,  which  in  other  words  is  goodness.  Science 
and  freedom  are  valuable  only  so  far  as  they  teach, 
persuade,  and  enable  us  to  improve  ourselves  and 
others ;  to  exercise  every  private  and  public  virtue  ; 
to  claim  only  what  is  due  to  ourselves,  while  making 
the  needful  sacrifice  to  the  common  good ;  to  have 
a  respect  for  humanity,  and  to  venerate  knowledge 
only  so  far  as  it  is  combined  with  virtue ;  to  attempt 
in  every  way  to  alleviate  the  miseries  of  others, 
to  deliver  their  minds  from  ignorance  and  error ;  to 
do  right  for  its  own  sake  without  coveting  rewards 
in  heaven  or  on  earth ;  to  submit  to  no  dictation  but 
that  of  truth  and  goodness. 

With  these  sacred  objects  in  view,  whatever  may 
be  said  to  the  contrary,  we  shall,  in  addition  to  the 
ineffable  fruition  of  truth  for  its  own  sake,  ever  draw 
nearer  to  the  ideal  of  the  human  race,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  an  apparent  Utopia  shall  be  actually 
realized,  in  accordance  with  the  mode  and  process  of 
growing  civilization.  Not  by  excesses,  tumults,  and 


CONCLUSION.  327 

folly,  but  by  unshaken  firmness  and  tenacity  we  shall 
promote  science  and  freedom.  If  this  modest  essay 
has  done  anything  to  show  the  necessity  of  such  cul- 
ture, and  in  what  way  science  and  freedom,  and  these 
two  factors  only,  have  brought  forth  fruit  throughout 
the  history  of  the  human  race,  my  labour  will  be  richly 
rewarded,  and  I  may  say  with  satisfaction — dies  non 
perdidi  ! 


15 


INDEX. 


A  priori  ideas,  their  definition,  7, 
8 ;  the  source  of  myth,  9 

Abstraction,  unconscious  and  ex- 
plicit, 138  ;  its  degrees,  139-150 

JEschylus,  110 

Alger  on  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
life,  74 

Animals  and  man,  their  intimate 
connection,  19;  their  embryo- 
genie  evolution,  19  ;  their  com- 
plete identity,  22 ;  their  self- 
consciousness,  50;  the  projection 
of  themselves  on  other  animals 
and  phenomena,  51,  53,  54,  55, 
161 ;  experiments  on,  60-64. 

Animation  of  extrinsic  phe- 
nomena, 28,  58-05,  111,  125-128 

Anthropomorphism,  90,  97,  106, 
181 

Apprehension,  act  of,  116;  by 
animals,  118;  psychical  law  of, 
119;  three  elements  of,  120;  by 
a  man,  122-127 

Arbrousset  on  the  Basutos,  75 

Aristotle,  his  teaching,  231 

Aryan  family,  its  primitive  unity 
with  the  Semitic,  31 ;  its  mytho- 
logy, 179,  197,  219;  its  concep- 
tion of  Christianity,  184-192 

Bridgman,  Laura,  207 

Christ,  the  apotheosis  of  man,  187 

Christianity,  its   diffusion,  178- 

192  ;  its  anthropomorphism,  181 

Dead,  the  worship  of,  15 
Demoniacal  beliefs,  77,  78,  79 


Descartes,  234 
Doric  school,  211 
Dreams,  253,  259,  270 

Entification,  the  term,  153;  of 
speech,  310 

Eleatic  school,  211 

Epicarmos,  109 

Evolution,  of  monotheism,  151 ; 
of  the  faculties  of  myth  and 
science,  157;  ot'language,  201- 
204  ;  of  writing,  209 ;  of  music, 
295-303 

Experiments  on  animals,  60-64 

Fetish  worship,  78,  94-97,  163, 

168,291,311 
Finns,  their  mythology,  101 

Galileo,  235 

Greece,  tier  philosophy,  210-217  ; 
her  mythology,  99,  130 

Hallucinations,  272,  281 
Hawaians,    their    concrete     lan- 
guage, 86 

Ionic  school,  210 
Kant,  233 

M'Lennan  on  the  worship  of 
plants  and  animals,  73 

Man,  his  intimate  connection  with 
animals,  19-23;  his  psychical 
force,  26;  estimated  according 
to  his  absolute  value,  35;  his 
power  of  reflection,  23,  52,  163 ; 


330 


INDEX. 


his  connection  with  the  uni- 
versal system,  36 

Mannhardt,  his  Deutsche  Mytho- 
logie,  100 

Max  Miiller,  his  theory  of  myth, 
11,  99. 

Mara,  incubus,  77 

Monotheism,  not  the  first  intuition 
of  man,  104;  its  evolution,  151 

Multiplicity  of  souls,  believed  by 
various  races,  165 

Myth,  the  spontaneous  form  of 
human  intelligence,  1 ;  its  per- 
sistence, 3,  33,  136;  its  germ 
interchangeable  with  that  of 
science,  9,  131,  132;  its  pro- 
blem unsolved,  12  ;  its  gradual 
disappearance,  33 ;  its  constant 
forms,  40;  its  origin  in  reflex 
power,  91  ;  its  second  form,  95 ; 
its  evolution  into  science,  113; 
its  various  stages,  160-174 

Mythology,  Indian,  10 ;  Finnish, 
101 ;  Vedic,  Greek,  and  Latin, 
130,  198;  its  historic  results, 
175-192  ;  Aryan,  179, 19U,  219; 
Pagan,  184 

Music,  its  evolution,  295-305 

New  Zealand,  original  meaning 
of  words,  89 

Perception,  primitive  human,  69  ; 
identical  in  man  and  in  animals, 
133 ;  the  product  and  cause  of 
myth,  153. 

Personification,  by  animals,  66, 
82 ;  by  man,  80 ;  of  internal 
perceptions,  81 ;  of  homologous 
types,  81 ;  of  specific  types,  84 

Pindar,  199 

Platonic  school,  220-230 


Polynesian  language,  89 
Polytheism,  its  origin,  98 
Pythagorean  school,  214-217 

Keflex  power  in  man,  23,  52  ;  its 

slow  growth,  163 
Kibot,  his  Psychologie  Allemande, 

39 
Koman  mythology,  95 

Sanscrit  roots,  201 

Science,  a  factor  of  intellectual 
life,  4;  its  germ  interchange- 
able with  myth,  9,  131,  132; 
as  a  whole,  revealed  in  its 
several  parts,  35 ;  its  effect  on 
myth,  112,  194 

Semitic  idea,  177;  race,  191 

Social  life  based  on  the  order  of 
nature,  38 

Societies,  the  genesis  of,  30 

Sociology,  its  foundation  in  the 
study  of  myth,  41,  45 

Sophocles,  110 

"Spencer,  his  Sociology,  14. 

Tahiti,  89 

Tnsmanians,  their  customs,  42-44 
Thales,  his  teaching,  212 
Transmigration  of  souls,  166 
Tylor  on  Primitive  Culture,  14, 
16 ;  his  theory  of  animism,  16 

Veda,  the  personification  of  phe- 
nomena, 71 ;  Vedic  mythology, 
76,  98,  130,  219;  Vedic  hymn, 
217 

Victory  of  the  natural  sciences, 
237 

Zeller  on  monotheism,  108 


THE   END. 


THE  CONCEPTS  AND  THEORIES 
OF  MODERN  PHYSICS. 

By  J.  B.  STALLO. 


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taining Practical  Information  regarding  Climate,  Soil,  and  Productions ;  Cities, 
Towns,  and  People  ;  Scenery  and  Eesorts  ;  the  Culture  of  the  Orange  and  other 
Tropical  Fruits ;  Farming  and  Gardening ;  Sports ;  Routes  of  Travel,  etc.,  etc. 
By  GEORGK  M.  BARBOUR.  With  Map  and  numerous  Illustrations.  l'2mo, 
cloth.  Price,  $1.50. 

This  is  the  most  comprehensive  and  authentic  book  on  Florida  that  has  been  pub- 
lished. The  following  TESTIMONIAL  is  proof  of  its  value  and  trustworthiness : 

"  It  is  known  to  the  undersigned  that  the  author,  Mr.  George  M.  Barbour,  has 
traveled  almost  the  whole  of  Florida,  under  circumstances  peculiarly  advantageous  for 
enabling  him  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  varied  resources  of  the  state,  and  with  the 
attractions  which  it  offers  to  the  three  classes  to  whom  his  work  is  addressed — Tourists, 
Invalids,  and  Settlers.  Our  knowledge  of  his  abilities  as  a  writer  on  Florida  subjects, 
and  of  the  opportunities  he  has  enjoyed  in  preparing  his  book,  are  such  that  we  can 
commend  it  as  at  once  trustworthy  and  comprehensive — greatly  superior  in  these  re- 
spects to  anything  hitherto  published  descriptive  of  the  entire  State  and  its  soil  and 
productions. 

"  W.  D.  BLOXHAM,  Governor  of  Florida ;  GEORGE  F.  DREW,  ex-Governor  of  Flor- 
ida; SETH  FRENCH,  ex-Commissioner  of  Immigration;  SAMUEL  FAIRBANKS,  Assistant 
Commissioner  of  Immigration." 

IN  THE  BRUSH  ;  Or,  Old-Time  Social,  Political,  and  Religious  Life 
in  the  Southwest.  By  Rev.  HAMILTON  W.  PIERSON,  D.  D.,  ex-President 
of  Cumberland  College,  Kentucky.  With  Illustrations  by  W,  L.  SHEPPARD. 
12mo,  cloth.  Price,  $1.50. 

"  Many  years  ago  Dr.  Pierson  was  active  in  the  Southwest  in  the  cause  of  education 
and  Bible-distribution,  and  he  has  here,  under  the  title  of '  In  the  Brush ;  or,  Old-Time 
Social,  Political,  and  Religious  Life  in  the  Southwest.'  preserved  some  of  the  most 
salient  and  memorable  of  his  experiences.  The  book  smacks  of  the  soil,  and  of  a 
state  of  things  most  unique  and  interesting,  yet  now  rapidly  fading  from  memory  and 
reminiscence.  ...  Its  vivid,  lively,  and  withal  most  truthful  descriptions  of  a  state  of 
society  now  passed  away  for  ever,  will  be  read  with  interest." — New  York  Evangelist. 

THE  BLOODY  CHASM.  A  Novel.  By  J.  W.  DE  FOREST,  author  of  "The 
Wetherel  Affair,"  "  Overland,"  etc.  16mo,  cloth.  Price,  $1.00. 

"At  last,  it  seems,  we  have  the  'American  novel,  with  letters  royal  to  attest  its 
birthright.  The  author  has  well  chosen  his  time,  just  when  '  the  war  of  secession  was 
ended.'  The  persons  he  brings  forward  are  real  people,  our  own  people ;  we  know 
them.  They  are  never  overdrawn,  but  most  intensely  ali^e  they  are  with  the  passions 
and  prejudices  of  those  times.  The  heroine  is  a  South  Carolinian— Mr.  De  Forest 
does  not  exaggerate  in  his  pictures  of  her  bravery  in  facing  poverty,  her  audacity  of 
speech,  and  the  bitterness  of  her  sectional  hatred.  He  always  keeps  on  the  tip  of  his 
pencil,  though,  a  certain  leaven  of  honey  that  makes  us  love  her  and  cry  '  Bravo  I  to 
her  inconsistencies.  There  are  other  characters  in  the  book,  notably  that  of  Aunt 
Chloe,  the  delineation  of  which  has  never  been  surpassed.  .  .  . 

"  The  story  seems  well  adapted  to  dramatization,  it  is  so  full  of  incident,  so  alive 
with  striking  situations,  varied  characters,  pithy  and  vivacious  dialogue." 

The  scene  opens  in  Charleston  soon  after  the  war,  and  the  story  turns,  as  the  title 
implies,  upon  the  sectional  passions  pertaining  to  the  struggle,  which  were  then  at 
their  height. 

For  sale  by  all  booksellers  ;  or  sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 


New  York:  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  1,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street 


Scientific  Publications. 

SUICIDE  :  An  Essay  in  Comparative  Moral  Statistics.  By  HENRY  MOBSELLI,  Pro- 
fessor  of  Psychological  Medicine  in  Koyal  University,  Turin,  12mo,  Cloth,  $1.75. 
"  Suicide  "  is  a  scientific  inquiry,  on  the  basis  of  the  statistical  method,  into  the  laws 
of  suicidal  phenomena.  Dealing  with  the  subject  as  a  branch  of  social  science,  it  con- 
siders the  increase  of  suicide  in  different  countries,  and  the  comparison  of  nations, 
races,  and  periods  in  its  manifestation.  The  influences  of  age,  sex,  constitution,  cli- 
mate, season,  occupation,  religion,  prevailing  ideas,  the  elements  of  character,  and  the 
tendencies  of  civilization,  are  comprehensively  analyzed  in  their  bearing  upon  the  pro- 
pensity to  self-destruction.  Professor  Morselli  is  an  eminent  European  authority  on 
this  subject.  It  is  accompanied  by  colored  maps  illustrating  pictorially  the  results  of 
statistical  inquiries. 

VOLCANOES  :  What  they  Are  and  what  they  Teach.  By  J.  W.  Jtrop, 
Professor  of  Geology  in  the  Eoyal  School  of  Mines  (London).  With  Ninety-six 
Illustrations.  12mo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

"  In  no  field  has  modern  research  been  more  fruitful  than  in  that  of  which  Professor 
Judd  gives  a  popular  account  in  the  present  volume.  The  great  lines  of  dynamical, 
geological,  and  meteorological  inquiry  converge  upon  the  grand  problem  of  the  interior 
constitution  of  the  earth,  and  the  vast  influence  of  subterranean  agencies.  .  .  .  His 
book  is  very  far  from  being  a  mere  dry  description  of  volcanoes  and  their  eruptions  ;  it 
is  rather  a  presentation  of  the  terrestrial  facts  and  laws  with  which  volcanic  phenomena 
are  associated." — Popular  Science  Monthly. 

"  The  volume  before  us  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  science  manuals  we  have  read  for 
some  time." — Athenaeum. 

"  Mr.  Judd's  summary  is  so  full  and  so  concise  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  give 
a  fair  idea  in  a  short  review."— Pall  Matt  Gazette. 

THE  SUN.  By  C.  A.  TOTING,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  College 
of  New  Jersey.  With  numerous  Illustrations.  12mo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

"  Professor  Young  is  an  authority  on  '  The  Sun,1  and  writes  from  intimate  knowl- 
edge. He  has  studied  that  great  luminary  all  his  life,  invented  and  improved  instru- 
ments for  observing  it,  gone  to  all  quarters  of  the  world  in  search  of  the  best  places 
and  opportunities  to  watch  it,  and  has  contributed  important  discoveries  that  have 
extended  our  knowledge  of  it. 

"  It  would  take  a  cyclopaedia  to  represent  all  that  has  been  done  toward  clearing  up 
the  solar  mysteries.  Professor  Young  has  summarized  the  information,  and  presented 
it  in  a  form  completely  available  for  general  readers.  There  is  no  rhetoric  in  his  book ; 
he  trusts  the  grandeur  of  his  theme  to  kindle  interest  and  impress  the  feelings.  His 
statements  are  plain,  direct,  clear,  and  condensed,  though  ample  enough  for  his  purpose, 
and  the  substance  of  what  is  generally  wanted  will  be  found  accurately  given  in  his 


ILLUSIONS  :  A  Psychological  Study.  By  JAMES  SXTLLY,  author  of  "  Sensa- 
tion and  Intuition,"  etc.  12mo.  Cloth,  $1.50. 

This  volume  takes  a  wide  survey  of  the  field  of  error,  embracing  in  its  view  not  only 
the  illusions  commonly  regarded  as  of  the  nature  of  mental  aberrations  or  hallucina- 
tions, but  also  other  illusions  arising  from  that  capacity  for  error  which  belongs  essen- 
tially to  rational  human  nature.  The  author  has  endeavored  to  keep  to  a  strictly  scien- 
tific treatment — that  is  to  say,  the  description  and  classification  of  acknowledged  errors, 
and  the  exposition  of  them  by  a  reference  to  their  psychical  and  physical  conditions. 

"  This  is  not  a  technical  work,  but  one  of  wide  popular  interest,  in  the  principles  and 
results  of  which  every  one  is  concerned.  The  illusions  of  perception  of  the  senses  and 
of  dreams  are  first  considered,  and  then  the  author  passes  to  the  illusions  of  introspec- 
tion, errors  of  insight,  illusions  of  memory,  and  illusions  of  belief.  The  work  is  a  note- 
worthy contribution  to  the  original  progress  of  thought,  and  may  be  relied  upon  as 
representing  the  present  state  of  knowledge  on  the  important  subject  to  which  it  is 
devoted." — Poplar  Science  Monthly. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

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Scientific  Publications. 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL,  CONCEPTS  OF  MODERN  PHILOSOPHIC 
THOUGHT,  CRITICALLY  AND  HISTORICALLY  CONSID- 
ERED. By  RUDOLPH  EUCKEN,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  in  Jena.  With  an 
Introduction  by  NOAH  PORTER,  President  of  Yale  College.  One  voL,  12mo, 
304  pages.  Cloth.  Price,  $1.75. 

President  Porter  declares  of  this  work  that  "  there  are  few  books  within  his 
knowledge  which  are  better  fitted  to  aid  the  student  who  wishes  to  acquaint  him- 
self with  the  course  of  modern  speculation  and  scientific  thinking,  and  to  form 
an  intelligent  estimate  of  most  of  the  current  theories." 

MIND  IN  THE  LOWER  ANIMALS  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE. 

By  W.  LATTDER  LINDSAY,  M.  D.,  F.  E.  S.  E.,  etc.    2  vols.,  8vo.    Cloth,  $4.00. 

"  The  author  of  this  work,  which,  regarded  merely  as  an  accumulation  of 
verified  and  classified  facts,  is  a  unique  and  precious  contribution  to  the  data  of 
comparative  psychology,  claims  that  he  entered  on  his  inquiry  without  any  theory 
to  defend,  support,  or  illustrate.  We  are  bound  to  say  that,  while  his  general 
conclusions  are  boldly  and  continually  avowed,  his  claim  of  fairness  and  caution 
is  justified  by  his  method  of  examining  particular  phenomena ;  that  he  seems 
willing  at  all  times  to  renounce  any  impression  or  belief  which  is  shown  to  be 
scientifically  untenable."—  New  York  Sun. 

"  In  this  work— two  volumes  of  over  500  pages— Dr.  Lindsay  marshals  a  pro- 
portionately large  number  of  facts  against  those  philosophers  who  maintain  that 
the  intelligence  of  man  differs  in  kind  and  not  simply  in  degree  from  that  of  the 
lower  animals.  It  is  one  purpose  of  his  book  to  show  that  the  main  differences 
between  man  and  the  lower  animals  exist  rather  in  their  physical  than  in  their 
mental  structure.  In  this  way  of  thinking,  all  animals  possess  not  the  semblance 
of,  but  the  true  substance  of  mind  and  will."— New  York  World. 

"  So  far  as  we  are  aware  there  has  been  no  treatise  upon  the  subject  of  animal 
intelligence  so  broad  in  its  foundations,  so  well  considered,  or  so  scientific  in  its 
methods  of  inquiry,  as  that  which  has  been  prepared  by  Dr.  W.  Lauder  Lindsay 
in  two  large  volumes,  the  first  being  devoted  to  a  study  of  animal  mind  in  health, 
and  the  second  to  animal  mind  in  disease.  We  may  safely  say  that  his  wcrk  is, 
in  some  respects,  the  most  important  essay  of  the  kind  that  has  yet  been  under- 
taken. His  observations  have  been  supplemented  by  a  thorough  mastery  of  the 
history  and  literature  of  the  subject,  and  hence  his  conclusions  rest  upon  the 
broadest  possible  foundation  of  safe  induction.  There  is  a  good  analytical  index 
to  the  book,  as  there  ought  to  be  to  every  work  of  the  kind."— New  York  Evening 
Post. 

THE  ELEMENTARY  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  AGRICULT- 
URE. By  N.  T.  LTJPTON,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  Vanderbilt 
University,  Nashville,  Tenn.  18mo.  Cloth.  Price,  45  cents. 

A  GLOSSARY  OF  BIOLOGICAL,  ANATOMICAL,  AND  PHYSIO- 
LOGICAL TERMS.  By  THOMAS  DUNMAN.  Small  8vo.  Cloth.  161 
pages.  Price,  $1.00. 

"  It  has  been  the  author's  task  to  furnish  here  a  small  and  convenient  but  very 
complete  glossary  of  those  terms  ;  and  he  has  done  this  so  well,  both  in  his  choice 
of  terms  for  definition  and  in  his  clear  exposition  of  their  etymological  and  tech- 
nical meaning,  as  to  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  in  this  direction."— New  York 
Evening  Post.  

For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  any  work  sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

1,  3,  and  5  Bond  Street,  New  York. 


Scientific  Publications. 


THE  HUMAN  SPECIES.  By  A.  DE  QTJATBEFAGES,  Professor  of  Anthro- 
pology in  the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  Paris.  12mo,  cloth,  $2.00. 

The  work  treats  of  the  unity,  origin,  antiquity,  and  original  localization  of 
the  human  species,  peopling  of  the  glohe,  acclimatization,  primitive  man,  forma- 
tion of  the  human  races,  fossil  human  races,  present  human  races,  and  the  physi- 
cal and  psychological  characters  of  mankind. 

STUDENTS'  TEXT-BOOK  OF  COLOR ;  or,  MODERN  CHROMAT- 
ICS. With  Applications  to  Art  and  Industry.  With  130  Original  Illus- 
trations, and  Frontispiece  in  Colors.  By  OGDEN  N,  ROOD,  Professor  of 
Physics  in  Columbia  College.  12mo,  cloth,  $2.00. 

"In  this  interesting  book  Professor  Rood,  who,  as  a  distinguished  Professor 
of  Physics  in  Columbia  College,  United  States,  must  be  accepted  as  a  competent 
authority  on  the  branch  of  science  of  which  he  treats,  deals  briefly  and  succinctly 
with  what  may  be  termed  the  scientific  rationale  of  his  subject.  But  the  chief 
value  of  his  work  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  he  is  himself  an  accom- 
plished artist  as  well  as  an  authoritative  expounder  of  science."— Edinburgh 
Beview,  October,  1879,  in  an  article  on  "  The  Philosophy  of  Color" 

EDUCATION  AS  A  SCIENCE.  By  ALEXANDEB  BAIN,  LL.  D.  12mo,  cloth, 
$1.75. 

"  This  work  must  be  pronounced  the  most  remarkable  discussion  of  educa- 
tional problems  which  has  been  published  in  our  day.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
bespeak  for  it  the  widest  circulation  and  the  most  earnest  attention.  It  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  every  school-teacher  and  friend  of  education  throughout  the 
land."— New  York  Sun. 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  STEAM-ENGINE.    By 

ROBERT  H.  THTJRSTON,  A.  M.,  C.  B.,  Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering 
in  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology,  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  etc.  With  163 
Illustrations,  including  15  Portraits.  12mo,  cloth,  $2.50. 

"  Professor  Thurston  almost  exhausts  his  subject ;  details  of  mechanism  are 
followed  by  interesting  biographies  of  the  more  important  inventors.  If,  as  is 
contended,  the  steam-engine  is  the  most  important  physical  agent  in  civilizing 
the  world,  its  history  is  a  desideratum,  and  the  readers  of  the  present  work  win 
agree  that  it  could  have  a  no  more  amusing  and  intelligent  historian  than  our 
author."— .Boston  Gazette. 

STUDIES  IN  SPECTRUM  ANALYSIS.  By  J.  NOBMAN  LOCKTEB,  F.  R.  S., 
Correspondent  of  the  Institute  of  France,  etc.  With  60  Illustrations.  12mo, 
cloth,  $2.50. 

"  The  study  of  spectrum  analysis  is  one  fraught  with  a  peculiar  fascination, 
and  some  of  the  author's  experiments  are  exceedingly  picturesque  in  their  re- 
sults. They  are  so  lucidly  described,  too.  that  the  reader  keeps  on,  from  page 
to  page,  never  flagging  in  interest  in  the  matter  before  him,  nor  putting  down 
the  book  until  the  last  page  is  reached."— New  York  Evening  Express. 

D.  APPLETON   &  CO.,  Publishers, 

1,  3,  &  5  BOND  STBEET,  NEW  YORK. 


Scientific  Publications. 


TEXT-BOOK  OF  SYSTEMATIC  MINERALOGY.  By  HENRY  BAUER 
MAN,  F.  G.  S.,  Associate  of  the  Royal  School  of  Mines.  (New  volume  in 
the  "  Text-Books  of  Science  Series.")  16mo,  cloth.  Price,  $2.50. 

ANTHROPOLOGY :  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Man  and  Civilization. 
By  EDWARD  B.  TYLOR,  D.C.L.,  F.  R.S.,  author  of  "Primitive  Culture," 
u  The  Early  History  of  Mankind,"  etc.  With  78  Illustrations.  12mo. 
With  Index.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

"Mr.  Tylor's  admirable  little  book  certainly  deserves  the  success  with  which 
it  will  doubtless  meet."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

SCIENTIFIC  CULTURE,  AND  OTHER  ESSAYS.  By  JOSEPH  PARSONS 
COOKE,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy  in  Harvard  College.  One 
vol.,  square  16mo,  cloth.  Price,  $1.0t). 

POPULAR  LECTURES  ON  SCIENTIFIC  SUBJECTS.  By  H.  HELM- 
HOLTZ,  Professor  of  Physics  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  Second  Series. 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

The  favor  with  which  the  first  series  of  Professor  Helmholtz's  lectures  was 
received  justifies,  if  a  justification  is  needed,  the  publication  of  the  present 
volume. 

THE  POWER  OF  MOVEMENT  IN  PLANTS.  By  CHARLES  DARWIN, 
LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  assisted  by  FRANCIS  DARWIN.  With  Illustrations.  12mo, 
cloth,  $2.00. 

"  Mr.  Darwin's  latest  study  of  plant-life  shows  no  abatement  of  his  power  of 
work  or  his  habits  of  fresh  and  original  observation.  We  have  learned  to  expect 
from  him  at  intervals,  never  much  prolonged,  the  results  of  special  research  in 
some  by-path  or  other  subordinated  to  the  main  course  of  the  biological  system 
associated  with  his  name;  and  it  has  been  an  unfailing  source  of  interest  to  see 
the  central  ideas  of  the  evolution  and  the  continuity  of  life  developed  in  detail 
through  a  series  of  special  treatises,  each  wellnigh  exhaustive  of  the  materials 
available  for  its  subject."— Saturday  Eemew. 

A  PHYSICAL  TREATISE  ON  ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM. 

By  J.  E.  H.  GORDON,  B.  A.,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  British  Association. 
With  about  200  full-page  and  other  Illustrations.    2  vols.,  8vo,  cloth,  $7.00. 

11  We  welcome  moat  heartily  Mr.  Gordon's  valuable  contribution  to  the  experimen- 
tal side  of  the  science.  It  at  once  takes  its  place  among  the  books  with  which  every 
investigator  and  every  teacher  who  goes  beyond  the  merest  rudiments  must  needs 
equip  himself.  There  is  certainly  no  book  in  English — we  think  there  is  none  in  any 
other  language — which  covers  quite  the  same  ground.  It  records  the  most  recent  ad- 
vances in  the  experimental  treatment  of  electrical  problems,  it  describes  with  minute 
carefulness  the  instruments  and  methods  in  use  in  physical  laboratories,  and  is  prodi- 
gal of  beautifully  executed  diagrams  and  drawings  made  to  scale."— London  Times. 

D.   APPLETON   &  CO.,  Publishers, 

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